


Bound

by Shivvlan



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-11-23
Updated: 2002-11-23
Packaged: 2019-10-15 16:24:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 45,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17532161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shivvlan/pseuds/Shivvlan
Summary: Gokou and Vegeta are bound together by forces beyond their control. Their lives may crumble, their sanity may disappear, but like it or not, they'll always have each other.





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Just a re-post of one of my older stories to AO3. (Have mercy, it really is old, lol) 
> 
> Original Notes:  
> This fik is set four years after Cell was defeated but runs on the idea that Gokou didn’t die. In MY AU Kaio-sama was smart enough to realise what Gokou was up too and he was ready with Bubbles and Gregory so Gokou teleported everyone to Earth as soon as he appeared on Kaio-sama’s Planet.

#  **Chapter one** :

 

It was just another day. It had begun like any other, continued like hundreds before it had and was completely and utterly normal in every way.

At least it had been till around mid-morning.

To be truthful the irregularity that occurred _was_ actually a vaguely normal occurrence – it happened every few years, disturbing the inhabitants of Earth from their everyday lives and ultimately resulting in the destruction of quite a lot of quiet country-side.

What had happened on that peaceful mid-morning was that an aura had appeared. And not just any aura; but a strong one. It reeked of blood-lust, bad intentions, and probably the destruction of the world as it was known.

Krillin and Juuhachi-gou felt it as they trained idly on the shores near Kame house.

Piccilo, Dende and even Mr. Popo sensed it as they stood talking in the fresh air of the Lookout.

Deep inside a specially made gravity chamber Vegeta knew of it instantly and a moment later, after an odd look at the strange expression on his fathers face, Trunks felt it too.

And stretched out near a lake after a satisfying mornings fishing, Goten, Gohan and Gokou felt it, the latter two rising slowly to their feet and staring off into the distance.

It was coming from the desert.

Gokou and Gohan exchanged a look then changed the direction of their gazes, noticing the familiar Ki of their friends streaking through the air towards where this new power had arisen.

“Goten.” Gohan said on an unspoken command from his father, “how ‘bout you take all these fish back to Mum and then give her a hand with them?”

Goten looked at Gohan blankly for a moment then grinned, “sure!”

Within seconds the miniature Saiyan was airborne, toting a giant fish over each shoulder.

As soon as the boy was out of sight, Gokou and Gohan took to the air themselves-heading to where an expanding web of power said their friends were gathering, near the dark power in the desert.

 ***

 Time was on his side. Of course it was-he’d arranged it that way.

He leaned back against a small outcropping of rock and smiled at the incalculably valuable treasures at his feet: The Seven Dragonball's.

They lay perfectly in the sand glowing subtly at each other and waiting for his command to summon the Eternal Dragon-which he’d do as soon as all his guests arrived.

A quick focusing of his power, and a glance behind him showed that the main players in his plan were close to being in place. He smiled. Not just any smile, but a slow faint smile. If anybody else had have been there they would have scrambled to hide themselves from it.

It had been four years since he’d decided to make this planet his home and over the last four years he’d been doing nothing more then watching, planning, gaining information and learning how to use it to fix the one problem his new home had. It was occupied.

Not for long however; and ridding the planet of the pests that infested it and the markings of their ‘civilization’ was going to be fun. But he had one job to do first. The planet had, to his vast amusement, been occupied by a group of fighters. Saviors of the planet if you wanted to get romantic – he’d spent the last four years studying them and today he was going to begin his plan to eliminate them.

Close-by a faint serge of now familiar energy cued the completion of the first part of his plan and his smile grew marginally wider as he pushed a few locks of pale blonde hair out of his lavender eyes. It was time to begin part two.

He pushed himself away from the rock he’d been leaning against and lifted slim hands to hover over the orange orbs that rested on the ground and then, like a soft wind rustling through the arms of a tree, his voice called out firmly, “Arise Eternal Dragon, Shenron; I Summon you!”

A cool wind blew up, flattening his loose dark clothing against his body and pushing his thick fringe annoyingly into his eyes and whipping his long braid over his shoulder, then the sky darkened, the only light coming from the brightly shining Dragonball's. A moment later he was staring coolly up into the eyes of Shenron.

“I will grant you two wishes.” The great Dragon boomed out, “Make your first wish!”

Once again that faint terrifying smile crept onto the blondes face and he opened his mouth, his first wish already on his lips.

 ***

 “So what do you think it is?” Krillin asked anxiously, knowing full well he wouldn’t like the answer.

“Well that’s obvious.” Yamucha said from where he stood, leaning against Bulma’s Capsule plane and scratching the back of his head, “It’s some Cell wannabe here to kill us all and take over the Earth.”

Krillin glared at Yamucha, “Or maybe he’s just passing through.” He glanced at Gokou who, along with Vegeta, was staring off into the distance – in the direction of the aura they’d all felt. “Right Gokou?”

As the words left his lips a wind blew up, plastering their clothing to their backs for a moment then disappeared, being replaced by a well-known darkness and a large Dragon appearing in the distance.

“Why can’t they ever be just passing through?” Krillin grumbled and Gohan, who’d been standing beside him, tried to console him, “He might not be doing anything bad. Not everyone wants to become immortal and rule the Universe.”

Krillin looked hopeful, “That’s true!”

“Yeah!” Yamucha added, “Maybe he’s just dying for a glass of water or something.”

Krillin slumped.

“Would you guys stop that? This is serious! We have to find out who it is and what he’s doing!” Bulma broke in and looked expectantly to Gokou. So did everyone else.

Gokou flashed a smile, “lets get a closer look.”

A few moments later found the troop walking silently through a near maze of sand coloured rocks trying to find where exactly the Dragon had been summoned from without being noticed. They weren’t having much luck. While figuring out where the Dragon was from a _distance_ was easily done, finding its origin when you were directly underneath it was turning out to be next to impossible.

“Why don’t we just blast these ridiculous things out of our way?!” Vegeta demanded after a few moments. He’d never been the patient type and all this fruitless wandering around was beginning to get on his nerves.

“Are you crazy?” The voice was from Krillin, “what if he’s dangerous?”

“Then we’ll pound him into the ground!” Vegeta said forcefully then reluctantly shut his mouth as Kakorotto gestured for them all to keep the noise down and to stop walking – apparently they’d finally found the location of the person who’d summoned the Eternal Dragon.

Pushing forward, passed the others, Vegeta glared over the rock that concealed them all and took in the scene presented to him.

A man, about average height, dressed in loose black and dark purple clothing, with a long pale blonde braid reaching down his back stood, arms outstretched, staring up at the Dragon, an intense look of concentration on his face. The Dragon seemed to be talking but Vegeta couldn’t hear him, and judging by the looks on everyone else’s faces, they couldn’t either.

“Why can’t we hear him?” Krillin wondered quietly. Vegeta ignored him studying the area till his eyes found the telltale evidence he needed to figure out the puzzle.

“Wind.” Kakorotto whispered back at Krillin at the same time Vegeta figured it out, “Either that man, or the Dragon, is controlling the wind around them so no noise will escape. It’s like a tightly controlled tornado.” Vegeta was sure it was the Blonde man who was doing it; no one would waste a wish on something as petty as preventing anyone from hearing what you were talking about.

“If we want to know what’s going on we have to get closer.” Vegeta snapped at everything in general, and Kakorotto in particular, then jumped over the rock into the clearing and walked over to the man who’d summoned the Dragon.

If he’d expected some sort of resistance when he marched out of hiding, his hands in the pockets of his black pants, and across the invisible wind barrier, he was sorely mistaken. One moment nothing reached his ears bar the sounds of the desert around him and the frantic whispers of the group behind him and then he could hear the tail end of the Eternal Dragon’s speech.

“…Only then can your wish be granted.”

A slight nod from the blonde man, “Those two?” He asked without looking around and Vegeta’s eyes narrowed in immediate suspicion.

“Uhmm…excuse me…” Behind Vegeta, Kakorotto had entered the area around the Dragon and before he’d even finished his tentative greeting his voice was drowned out.

“Yes.” The Dragon’s eyes flashed, “Your wish has been granted.” And then, in a blinding flash of light, the Dragon faded back into the seven Dragonball's and, as the sky lightened, lifted into the air; flying upwards to redistribute themselves over the Earth.

Vegeta ignored it completely. He felt odd. A kind of tingling sensation permeated his body and, as he focused on it, began to constrict till it was settled in his stomach. For a moment it was painful – then it eased into a dull sensation.

Vegeta glared at the smug looking blonde man, “What have you done?!” he demanded and the Blonde man’s faint smile grew.

“I have made things easier.” He stated, his lavender eyes sparkling with unholy amusement.

“Easier?” Kakorotto questioned, moving closer to where Vegeta and the Blonde stood.

“Yes, easier for me anyway. I think you will find, unfortunately, that things have become quite difficult for you.” The man’s voice sounded sympathetic but his expression was still smug and his eyes laughed.

Vegeta clenched his fists and ground his jaw slightly, “What did you do?” He demanded again, this time taking a threatening step forward.

The blonde’s amusement grew and he stepped back slightly, lifting up into the air, “I have no doubts you will figure it out soon enough. Have fun, I know I will.” And he was gone, streaking off into the air in a blur of rapidly lost colour.

Vegeta tried to go after him…

…And found himself doubled up on the ground clutching at his chest which suddenly felt as if he’d just tried to take to the air and leave it behind.

A moment later the pain eased and he lay on his back, panting with the after effects of the pain, then looked up at Kakorotto who was staring speculatively into the air where the blonde had disappeared.

What had just happened? What kind of wish had that man made that had rendered Vegeta unable to leave the ground? Was that the wish? Or was it part of something larger?

Grinding his teeth, Vegeta stood, “What is this?! What has he done?” he was about ready to attempt leaping into the air again when there was suddenly a hand on his shoulder.

Immediately he spun around and slapped Kakorotto’s hand away, “Don’t touch me!” he growled and for a moment Vegeta thought he saw a glimmer of hurt in the other Saiyan’s eyes.

“You shouldn’t do anything rash. We should…”

“Don’t tell me what I should be doing!”

“ _GOKOU!_ ” the cry was shortly joined by the former Buddhist monk who’d uttered it and the rest of the tall Saiyan’s companions, “Are you alright? What happened?”

Gokou’s hand immediately found it’s way behind his head and he laughed, not quite sure how to respond.

“Kakorotto! We don’t have time for ridiculous chitchat.” Stepping away from the group Vegeta threw himself into the air then, with a slight hover to see what happened, flew upwards.

The pain hit him immediately and stunned him enough that he once again dropped out of the air – landing with a crash in the sand below. White spots flashed in front of his eyes and to his chagrin he realised he was moaning under his breath in pain.

And then it was gone. It didn’t fade. It didn’t ease. It just disappeared completely.

He gasped from the shock, blinking and then focused on the concerned face that was suddenly hovering above his own.

“Vegeta? Vegeta?! Are you alright? Vegeta?” Bulma brushed an errant strand of blue hair out of her face and reached out to shake the Saiyan prince’s arm but stopped short when she was knocked off her feet as Vegeta roughly pushed her out of his way and sat up.

“ _Vegeta_!” Bulma’s squeal was indignant as she tried to keep from sprawling across the ground completely.

“Shut up, Woman!” Vegeta growled absently, his narrowed eyes picking out his surroundings.

He was almost five feet away from the rest of the group but he was sure he had flown further then that, and the tracks in the sand proved his suspicion correct; the group had moved closer to him, but it hadn’t been him they had rushed from their positions to see too.

“Gokou, what on earth is going on? What just happened? Are you _sure_ you’re alright now?”

“Yeah, what was that? You looked like you were in real pain, man!”

Kakorotto had been in pain too? _Did he attempt to fly after me?_

Vegeta pushed himself to his feet and walked over to the small group, pushing passed the fools in his way, “Kakorotto!”

The taller Saiyan looked up immediately from where he knelt in the sand, his eyes concerned, “Vegeta! Are you okay?”

Vegeta ignored the question, “What the hell is going on here, Kakorotto?”

Gokou spread his hands before him as he moved to his feet, “I don’t know, but I think we should find out. Bulma?” Gokou’s gaze moved to the girl hovering behind Vegeta, “Can you fly us back to capsule corp.? We need to get to the bottom of this.”

“Sure.”

“She doesn’t need to fly us!” Vegeta stated as Bulma dug around in her pocket for her capsule plane.

Gokou just looked at him and Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the rocks across the clearing from him, trying to resist his instinct to growl.

“There!” Bulma chirped and a rush of air and a muffled ‘ _whoomp_ ’ announced the arrival of Bulma’s Capsule plane.

His mouth set in a firm line, Vegeta followed Kakorotto onto the vehicle and suffered riding the trip back to Capsule corp. in silence, having no choice but to listen to the insane, incessant babbling of the weak fools Kakorotto called friends.

 ***

Gokou was suspiciously quiet on the trip to Capsule corp. and Krillin found himself imitating him. What was going on? What kind of wish had been cast that left not just Vegeta in pain when he tried to fly, but Gokou also? The pain was connected somehow and Krillin sincerely hoped whatever it was could be cured.

A slight bump was the only indication that Bulma had landed the capsule plane but Vegeta was standing and heading for the exit before the engine was even switched off. _Always the impatient one…_

As Vegeta reached the door however, Krillin watched as the short Saiyan froze in his tracks, and odd expression on his face that cleared as Gokou joined him at the door.

“Vegeta…” Gokou started but Vegeta pushed the door open and headed straight for the main building.

Krillin climbed out of the plane after Gokou and was surprised to see that Vegeta, instead of going into the building as he had thought the Saiyan would, was standing stock still in the centre of the yard, his hands balled at his sides and his breath coming in pained gasps. Krillin glanced sharply at Gokou and realised his friend was having much the same problem.

“Gokou…?”

The taller man was staring over at Vegeta and barely cast Krillin a glance, “It’s okay, Krillin. I think I figured out what’s wrong.” And he was gone – a few long strides taking him to Vegeta’s side.

Krillin’s eye’s narrowed in speculation as he realised that the tension drained out of both the Saiyan’s instantly.

 ***

 “You _WHAT?!_ ”

Everyone stood, or sat, crowded around in Bulma’s living room staring at the man who’d left the group in complete silence except for Bulma’s shocked exclamation.

“I said,” Gokou wore one of his rare serious expressions and everyone in the room was glued to it as he explained his theory again, “that the wish made it so Vegeta and I can’t get further then about ten to twelve feet of each other; and if we try we’ll probably end up in agony again.”

The room erupted.

“No way!” Yamucha exclaimed as Gohan took a few quick strides, closing the gap between he and his father, and stared up at him in concern.

Bulma and Piccilo joined Yamucha in his vocal denial, and Krillin sat frowning.

Everyone crowded around Gokou – and everyone ignored Vegeta.

This was nonsense. Vegeta sneered at Kakorotto through the group obscuring him then turned on his heel. There was one way to test this theory – Vegeta walked out of the room.

It only hurt a little bit at first, but as soon as he was more then a few feet passed the door the slight pain turned into blinding agony, just like it had when he’d stalked out of the Capsule Plane.

He stood stock still in the centre of the hallway his breath coming in hard gasps, just as he had earlier, until the pain eased and he felt eyes boring into the back of his neck. He didn’t have to turn around to know that Kakorotto and his _friends_ were standing in the doorway watching him.

“Vegeta…”

Vegeta spun on his heel; glaring, “How do we reverse this?”

“With the Dragonball's,” Bulma piped up. “We just have to reverse the wish!”

“Yeah, that’s right!” Krillin said cheerfully.

Vegeta paled and Gokou frowned.

“I will not spend the next _year_ grafted to the side of this third class _moron_!” Vegeta growled and watched the lights of comprehension dawn on the faces of the others.

“Th…the next year?”

“There’s no other way.” Gokou said, frowning still.

“There has to be another way!” Vegeta stabbed out a finger, prodding Kakorotto hard in the chest, “I refuse to spend my time ar…” Vegeta broke off his speech as his finger connected with Gokou’s chest and he felt as if he’d been hit with a hundred watt bolt of lightning.

The Saiyan prince immediately snatched his hand back and stared at the taller man who was looking startled and staring back. They had both felt it.

“Gokou? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Krillin. Bulma,” Gokou rubbed his chest absently where Vegeta had poked him and turned slightly to look at the blue haired woman, “maybe you could figure out what’s causing this...this bond? Maybe it can be reversed without the Dragonball's.”

Bulma stared at the two Saiyan men for a moment then nodded, “I’ll see what I can do, but you’ll need to stay here Gokou, so I can do some tests.”

“Sure,” One hand suddenly found its way behind his head and he grinned sheepishly, “I’ll have to borrow your Vid-phone though. I’ll need to tell Chichi what’s happened.”

Bulma gestured behind her and Gokou began to walk into the room, freezing after only a moment and looking back at Vegeta apologetically.

Vegeta glared at the taller Saiyan and, crossing his arms over his chest, followed him into the room, doing his best to remain as far from him as he could handle.

 ***

 There were dishes everywhere.

Bulma put her hands on her hips and stared in despair at the mess that had been made of her kitchen. How could Chichi stand it; having so many large eaters in her house?

Reluctantly the woman rolled up her sleeves and began to carefully stack dishes, her mind already fleeing the menial task to focus on the bigger problem that had presented itself. Where was she to even start to figure out how Gokou and Vegeta had been bonded together? Was it a physical connection, or a mental one? Or both?

How could she even begin to test it? She supposed she should get her father to start with a physical evaluation to see if anything had been added to their bodies, and maybe-

( _Crash_!)

The room suddenly shook and most of the dishes Bulma had carefully stacked crashed to the floor, smashing into hundreds of scattered fragments. Bulma just sighed – she was used to the unusual explosions that Vegeta caused around the place with his training and she guessed it would only get worse now Gokou was here. Bending down she began to clean up the mess.

***

“Whoa…!” Trunks stood staring at the crater that had, moments before, been a makeshift target and then turned his eyes to his disgruntled father; then repeated himself, “Whoa!”

Gokou was standing a few feet away, his hand once again behind his head, and laughing.

“If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right!” Vegeta snarled, blocking out Kakorotto’s annoying laughter and glaring down at his son, “If you’re going to blast it, then blast it.”

Trunks nodded, his mouth still open from the shock he’d gotten when Vegeta had blown the target up.

“We were just playing, Vegeta;” Gokou had managed to stop laughing, but his eyes still sparkled with amusement, “you didn’t have to blow up our target.”

Vegeta glared at the taller man, “He shouldn’t be playing he should be training. Playing won’t make him stronger.”

“He’s already really strong for his age, Vegeta. He should be out having fun.”

Vegeta sneered, “Like your youngest, Kakorotto? I’m surprised he can fight at all considering how lax you are with his training.”

Gokou smiled faintly, “Goten can keep up with Trunks just fine even if he doesn’t train as much.”

Vegeta glowered at Kakorotto then looked down at his son, “How much stronger then Kakorotto’s youngest are you?”

Trunks shifted his feet uncomfortably, “Goten’s dad’s right, I’m only a little bit stronger then him, probably because I’m a year older.”

Vegeta’s eye’s narrowed but whatever he was about to say next was forestalled by the appearance of Bulma’s mother.

“Oh hello there, I’ve just come to fetch Trunks for bed.” She paused, noticing the smoking crater in the middle of the lawn, “Oh my! I’ll have to get some people in to fix that in the morning. Come along Trunks dear.”

Reluctantly Trunks followed his grandmother back into the house, leaving Vegeta and Gokou alone.

The atmosphere was explosive but Gokou didn’t seem to notice it. He clapped his hands together, “So what are you normally doing about now?”

Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest, “Training.”

“Ahhh… Isn’t it a bit late for training?”

A sneer, “It’s never to late for training, an enemy won’t stop fighting just because it gets dark.”

“Well yeah… That’s true.” Gokou scratched behind his head again trying to think of a way to convince Vegeta to get an early night – this whole bond thing was getting to be a real drag, and it hadn’t even been in place for 12 hours yet.

“Is there something else you’d far sooner do, Kakorotto? Eat again perhaps? Or maybe go to sleep?” Vegeta said sarcastically.

Gokou perked up, “Well actually more food and sleep would be...”

Vegeta snorted and walked away, heading straight for his gravity chamber; if Kakorotto wanted to sleep then he could do it at 500 times Earth’s normal gravity.

Sighing, Gokou trailed along behind Vegeta and realised he sorta _did_ hope Bulma could find some kind of cure before a year was up.

***

" _Kyaaaahhhhh!!_ :

"Gokou! Stay  _still_!"

“No!  _Argh!_ No! Can’t we do something else? _Bulma!_ ”

“Gokou, come _down_ from there!”

“NO!”

Gokou, Vegeta and Bulma had been gathered together all morning as Bulma began various tests on the two Saiyan’s. Already they had discovered that the ‘bond’ had a limit of exactly twelve feet before either felt any pain and now Bulma wanted to do blood tests.

The one problem with that idea, Bulma had discovered as soon as she’d begun preparations to gather the samples, was that Gokou had a complete horror of needles. The blue haired girl had tried everything from sweetly cajoling the man, to attempted bribery. Now she had resorted to attempting to restrain him and get it over with – except that Gokou was now hanging upside-down from the ceiling, his eyes screwed shut and remaining completely out of Bulma’s reach.

“Vegeta, _do something_!”

Smirking, Vegeta stood leaning against the wall, near the door, with his arms folded over his chest. “And what should _I_ do, woman?”

“Fly up and _pull him down_!” Bulma growled forcefully.

“What for? You don’t need samples from both of us right now.” Vegeta looked up at Kakorotto contemptuously then smirked at Bulma again, “Any anomaly would be in both of our blood streams.”

Bulma paused in her search of a way to get to Gokou and blinked at Vegeta, “You’re right.”

Vegeta smirked then moved to stand near the table that held the needles, rolling his sleeve up as he walked. He would show Kakorotto how a _real_ Saiyan handled something as ridiculous as a needle.

From above came a low moan as Bulma poked the small piece of metal into Vegeta’s arm and the tube began to fill with blood.

“Oh, be quiet you big baby.” Bulma muttered in the direction of the roof, “You don’t have to worry about this _at the moment_.”

Extracting the needle from Vegeta’s arm, Bulma began the job of sealing the tube and moved out of the way of Vegeta as he pulled his sleeve down, casting his gaze upwards.

“You can come down now Kakorotto. We’re leaving.”

“Hey! I’m not done with you yet!”

Vegeta didn’t even look at Bulma as he turned and moved to leave, “You’ve had us in this ridiculous room all morning; I have training to do.”

Bulma glared and Vegeta swung the door open and stalked out. A moment later Gokou dropped to the floor and sprinted out after him, obviously still in fear of Bulma’s needles.

 ***

 “Hn…”

“…Of course Oolong recognised Puar from when they were younger…”

“…”

“…I really wasn’t sure I could beat him cause he was really strong back then…”

“Kakorotto…”

“…He’d got me stuck under a tree, I had to hold it up to stop from being squashed…”

“Kakorotto!”

“…Then he began to use this great move, Ryouga fufu-ken, and I thought I was a goner…”

“ _Kakorotto_!”

“…But then, luckily, Bulma woke up...”

“ _I DON’T CARE!_ ”

Gokou stopped talking abruptly and stared at the heavily breathing Vegeta, startled.

“I don’t care how you met those useless humans or anything about your pathetic past. Just. Be. _Quiet_!”

Gokou’s expression turned injured then he nodded slightly and dropped into a sitting position to watch Vegeta as the man went back to training.

Even though neither man could move far from the other, Vegeta still gave the impression that he was everywhere in the large Capsule Corp. ship he used to train. It was as if he were driven, Gokou reflected as his eyes moved swiftly to watch Vegeta’s rapid movement, the man pushed himself as if he were fighting for his life every moment; each movement he made was precise and carried the weight of his resolve to grow stronger, faster, better then any other that crossed his path.

 Gokou was hypnotised now that he’d actually started paying attention. Vegeta was nearly dancing as he optimised the small space available to him, barely causing even small twinges in Gokou’s chest from the inconvenient bond as he skirted the invisible parameter.

When Vegeta’s momentum finally brought him to a stop, barely two feet from Gokou’s sprawled form, Gokou had to blink rapidly to bring himself from the near trance he’d fallen into.

“What are you staring at?” Vegeta demanded irritably a few moments after he’d slowed to a stop and remembered, belatedly, that he had an audience.

Gokou blinked again then rose to his feet, “We should spar.” He stated and then, not giving Vegeta much of a choice, launched his first attack.

***

“It-t-t-t-t-tai!”

“Well it’s your own fault!” Bulma snapped as she finished tying off the short length of bandage that was wrapped around Gokou’s upper arm then stormed over to where Vegeta lay, scraped, bleeding and completely unconscious, “Honestly! Of all the stupid things the two of you could have done!”

Gokou began to raise his hand, to place it behind his head, but stopped abruptly as a blinding pain raced along his arm, reminding him of why it was bandaged, “It was an accident, Bulma. Is he going to be alright?”

As he spoke the last, Gokou crawled carefully across the floor of the Capsule ship to Vegeta’s prone form and peered over Bulma’s shoulder.

“He will be if you give me some room to _move_.”

Gokou pushed himself back a bit but still hovered close, feeling guilty and wishing he could help.

“Explain to me _exactly_ what happened.” Bulma demanded after a moment of tense silence and Gokou pulled one leg up, tucking his knee under his chin and wrapping his good arm around it.

“Well… We were only sparring, Bulma. I figure that we’ll need to learn to fight inside the Bond’s limitations so we were testing it out.” He shook his head, “I misaimed one of my energy blasts though and when it exploded we got thrown too far apart.” Gokou winced and held his leg tighter to his chest as his entire body tingled from the memory of the intense pain that had assaulted him.

“It’s a bit of a blur after that. All I really remember is the pain and trying to get to Vegeta… I thought we were going to die.” He added honestly.

“Well you very well _might have_!” Bulma’s gruff tone gave way to reflect the worry she’d felt when she’d first realised there had been an accident in the training Capsule. “We still don’t know what kind of _bond_ this _is_. What if it’s not limited to physical distance?! If one of you died; the other one might as well!”

Gokou stared at the floor, a light blush darkening his cheeks. The same thoughts had been spinning around in his head ever since the pain had receded and he’d realised what had happened. What _would_ he do if something happened to one of them, or both of them? They still didn’t even know who had made the wish that had created the bond in the first place, much _less_ why he had done it. It was very likely that the two Saiyan’s would be needed, and soon at that.

“We have to learn to fight like this, Bulma.” Gokou said slowly, looking up at the girl as he spoke, “We don’t know when we’ll be needed and we can’t afford to be caught unprepared.”

Bulma sighed and began wrapping bandages around Vegeta’s various wounds, “I’ll find a cure for this, Gokou.” She said firmly, “As soon as I know what’s causing it I _will_ figure out how to fix it.”

Gokou remained silent and sat staring at Vegeta’s relaxed face and wondering what they’d do if Bulma failed.


	2. Two

#  _**Chapter Two**_ :

  


##  **Week One**

  


/ _crash!_ /

The building shook and a sifting of dust floated down from the ceiling.

“I can’t _take it_ _any more_!!!”

Bulma slammed her hands down on the computer desk and shoved herself away from it roughly, the legs of the chair scraping loudly across the floor, then marched out of her lab, tension in her every step.

How was a person supposed to _think_ with all that racket going on?!

Stepping out of the Capsule Corp. building, Bulma glared at where Gokou and Vegeta were standing in the centre of a ring of complete destruction, the former with his hand rubbing the back of his head and laughing sheepishly.

“What on _Earth_ happened _this time_?!” She growled dangerously and Gokou immediately pointed at Vegeta and slid backwards out of harms way.

“What of it, Woman!” Vegeta snapped his eyes flashing to her dismissively.

“What of it? _What. Of. It?!_ For the passed _week_ I’ve had to deal with explosions, broken buildings, repair crews, complaints from everyone that lives, or works, within a _mile_ of here not to mention the cacophony of noise that is making it _completely impossible to concentrate on_ _ **your**_ _problem_ ; and you ask me, ‘ _What of it_ _'_?!”

Breathing hard, Bulma paused and Gokou stepped forward again, his hands making vague soothing motions, “Come on, Bulma. We don’t mean to be so much hassle; and we appreciate what you’re doing, really we do. Right, Vegeta?”

At the question, Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest and glared off in the opposite direction.

“See!” Gokou said.

“Gokou,” Bulma’s voice was tightly controlled, “if you want me to get any work done on this you have to _go away_. I don’t care where, just go!”

Gokou’s expression turned injured, “We’ll be quiet.” He offered.

“Kakorotto! Stop snivelling and let’s just go. It’s to cramped here for a decent fight anyway.”

Gokou looked over his shoulder at Vegeta and frowned, “But…”

“Gokou! Both of you just _go_! Stay at your own house, at least there you won’t bother anyone with your pointless bickering!”

“Bulma…” Gokou began.

“Kakorotto!” Vegeta pushed himself into the air, stopping at the twelve-foot limit and glared impatiently down at the hesitant Saiyan.

“Okay, okay… Bye Bulma!” Gokou waved then jumped into the air, putting on a quick burst of speed as the impatient Vegeta shot out ahead. Well – at least Chichi would be happy.

## **

“I will not have _that_ man in _my_ house!” Chichi was standing with her hands planted firmly on the kitchen table as she leaned towards the front door and the objects of her declaration.

“But Chichi…” Gokou tried to placate her.

“No! If it isn’t enough that I have my own family to feed, my husband has been cursed and I have _no_ idea how we’ll get the money we need to live on; now you want to inflict another mouth to feed on me and Kami _knows_ where he’ll sleep!” Chichi waxed from heated lecturing to tearful laments, then back again finally ending with a growl, “And I will _not_ put up with you blowing my house to smithereens!” 

“But Chichi! We won’t…”

“And I do _not_ want these kinds of interruptions to interfere with Gohan and Goten’s studying! How are they going to get into good schools if they’re constantly distracted like this?!”

“Chichi…!”

“ _Woman!_ ” Vegeta finally stopped his intent study of the trees outside the front door and growled, “I will not be blowing up your house, disturbing your children or you in any way. The only reason we’re even _here_ is because Kakorotto insisted. Saiyan’s are quite capable of tending to ourselves if needed and we will simply go some place else if you have a problem.”

Chichi’s expression turned from dark to furious, “How _dare_ you imply I’d turn away a guest! You’re staying right here, Mister. Whether you like it or _not_ , and don’t you _dare_ complain!”

Vegeta smirked and went back to his contemplation of the trees as Gokou stood blinking.

“Now both of you, _out_!” Chichi made vague ‘shooing’ motions with her hands “Get out of the way and don’t be late for dinner!”

Both men wisely left the house immediately, looking for somewhere they could spar in peace yet still be close enough that someone would know if something had gone wrong.

“Wow, Vegeta! How’d you know what to say? I didn’t think anyone could handle Chichi that well.” Gokou was trailing along behind Vegeta, his hand running through his hair as he spoke.

“Shut up.” Vegeta ignored Gokou as best he could, his arms crossed over his chest.

“I guess you would learn how to do that though, since you live with Bulma…”

Judging they were far enough away from Kakorotto’s house, Vegeta spun on his heel, a punch already aimed at the other man.

Gokou dodged it easily; already growing used to Vegeta’s sudden attacks, and flowed perfectly into a simple martial art form, “Do we really have to spar now?” he tried half heartedly, “We could go fishing and do this later.”

Vegeta growled and jumped into the air, a kick aimed at Gokou’s head, not bothering to reply.

Gokou sighed and ducked the kick, his own foot lashing out as he moved, in a failed attempt to knock Vegeta over.

Training. It was all Vegeta seemed to do apart from sleeping (sparingly) and eating (copiously).

Now, Gokou admitted, he loved to fight just as much as Vegeta did, but the constant ‘all day, every day’ routine was wearing thin. Didn’t the man ever stop? Didn’t he ever want to just pause, take a look around, and enjoy his surroundings?

The battle had branched out into aerial combat now and Gokou was currently moving his arms rapidly--blocking the nearly imperceptible flurry of blows being aimed at his head, chest and midsection.

He watched for his chance, and it came quickly enough. With both of Vegeta’s arms spread wide from blocked punches, Gokou countered with his own set of barely blocked hits and then slipped in a kick that connected and sent Vegeta down the short distance to the ground.

Gokou had enough time to register that his attack had worked then Vegeta was on him again.

Using the ground to speed up his momentum, Vegeta launched himself at Gokou, catching him by surprise and landing a solid punch to the side of the man’s face, hurling him backwards through the air and sending electric jolts up Vegeta’s arm.

Vegeta didn’t stop to admire the blow. Instead he threw himself after Gokou’s hurtling figure, phasing out briefly to appear in time to send the bigger Saiyan flying upwards, curtsey of a powerful punch to the stomach; then phased out again and appeared higher up in the sky, a swift kick sending Gokou plummeting downwards to slam into the ground. Hard.

Now would have been where Vegeta stopped to admire his handy work. Normally.

Instead he was lightly touching down on the ground near his rival, making damned sure the twelve foot limit of their Bond wasn’t breached. Vegeta hated it. He was bound unavoidably to this softhearted third-class moron and the prince already knew he wouldn’t last the entire year they would be bound.

He’d figured out years ago that he couldn’t stand being around the taller man. His laugh, his too-big grin, and his infinitely moronic comments all served to drive the prince into a near fit of frustration and irritation. How could Kakorotto, this complete fool, be a member of such an elite race as the Saiyajin? Every moment Vegeta had to be around him his disbelief that this man, _this_ man, had gone Super Saiyan before his prince; had gotten the revenge their race so richly deserved on the tyrant who had destroyed them, and in nearly the same breath, could defeat Vegeta in a proper battle _every single time,_ grew.

It was insufferable; and he was now faced with it every moment of every day. It had only been a week, but already Vegeta was feeling the strain. One week. He needed to get away. Away from Kakorotto, away from his pathetic moronic comments and smiles, and away from the hurtful reminders of exactly how impotent he really was.

No matter how hard he strived, he was always second best. Normally he could deny it, pretend that, given enough training, he could defeat the other. But with the man around him _all_ the time... 

Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest trying to dampen the electric feeling that still raced through the limbs, as he stared down at the dazed figure at his feet, “Get up.” He commanded.

Gokou stared upwards. No way. He wasn’t getting up till Vegeta gave in and let them go to the river or something, “I’m not sparring anymore.” He said matter-of-factly.

Vegeta frowned, “Get up and fight me, Kakorotto!”

Gokou, unheeding of how ridiculous it looked, crossed his own arms over his chest, “No.”

It was a show down, a clash of wills. So far Gokou had been going along with whatever Vegeta said, but now he was drawing a line.

Vegeta stared into Gokou’s eyes, weighing the man’s resolve against his own; it was hard as steel. Gokou let his determination to win this silent battle show in his eyes and Vegeta suddenly felt trapped. As if he were being sucked down into the liquid black depths, a disconcerting pull beginning to draw him forwards, towards the other man; willing him to reach out, to touch him.

Vegeta blinked and re-caught his balance, shaking the feeling off. “Fine, do what you want.” Turning away, he levelled his glare at the surrounding trees.

Gokou blinked then his look of determination melted into a boyish grin, “Follow me!”

A few minutes later had the two men standing on the bank of Gokou’s favourite fishing spot.

Vegeta glared as Gokou began to strip of his clothes.

“I’m not going in.” Vegeta declared and Gokou blinked at him for a moment before he clicked.

“Oh... well just sit real close to the edge then.”

Vegeta glared again then simply gave up and sat at the water’s edge then closed his eyes, effectively blocking the other man out, and resigned himself to a wasted afternoon.

## **

##  **Week Two**

“Stop it.”

Silence.

“Kakorotto. If you don’t stop that this _moment_ I’ll kill you right now!” Vegeta snapped and turned his head to glare at the man who stared impassively back.

“But I’m not doing anything,” Gokou protested, his eyes going wide in complete innocence; genuinely having no idea what he’d done this time to annoy the other Saiyan.

Vegeta growled and had to restrain himself from leaping across the distance that separated the two and strangling the third-class idiot. “You have been staring at me, non-stop, for the past two hours, Kakorotto. If you don’t stop it _now_ I’ll _make_ you stop.”

Irrationally, Gokou’s face went bright red. “Ahhh... Sorry. I hadn’t realised…I didn’t mean…I was just thinking…I… Sorry,” he stammered out.

Vegeta glared at the other man for a moment before going back to his contemplation of the inside of his eyelids.

Gokou was still blushing. He really hadn’t noticed he’d been staring, and certainly not for that long. And what had he actually been staring at anyway?

Letting his gaze linger on the wall beside him, Gokou tried to dredge up whatever had been going through his mind only moments before. Whatever it had been had fled when Vegeta’s voice had intruded on the silence and all Gokou could capture were brief, confusing mental images of his and Vegeta’s past battles and then a sudden, blindingly clear, thought. A wordless appreciation of the way Vegeta looked as he meditated. The soft even breath’s, impassive expression, which for once wasn’t twisted in a smirk, snarl or mask of hatred; and the way his body, his Ki, and his very essence was at peace with everything around him.

Gokou shook his head in mute confusion then shrugged, eyeing Vegeta again.

The Saiyan wasn’t nearly so at peace now. While he still had the air of meditative trance about him, his Ki no longer flowed outwards, balancing him with the energy’s around him. Now it was held close, guardedly. Watching.

“Kakorotto, if you haven’t anything useful to do then go to sleep.” Vegeta snapped, not even bothering to open his eyes this time. Gokou started guiltily.

“Right. Good night.” Gokou waited for a brief moment for a reply but was rewarded by nothing more then a slight tightening of Vegeta’s lips. 

With a sigh, the earth raised Saiyan pushed back the blanket on his pallet, on the floor of the living room (where Chichi had relegated the two men too), and lay down under it.

Within moments he was asleep, leaving Vegeta to his silent contemplation of the night around him.

## **

“C’mon guys! Hurry it up a bit, I _do_ want to get there sometime today.”

“We’re coming already!” Krillin muttered under his breath as he and Yamucha sped up their steps to catch up with Bulma, “Why did she come anyway?”

Yamucha shrugged, “Something about wanting some of Gokou’s blood for an experiment, or something like that.”

Krillin blinked. Blood from Gokou? That certainly wasn’t going to be easy, not unless she planned to slice him up with a sword or something.

“Come _on_ , Guys!” Bulma’s impatience finally got to her and she marched off ahead of the other two, only coming to a stop when she finally reached the Son’s front door. As she raised her hand to knock, the door was pulled open and Chichi stood there watching her.

“Hi!” Bulma chirped. “Is Gokou around? I need a blood sample.”

“He’s not.” Chichi scowled, “He and Vegeta have gone somewhere to _train_.”

Bulma frowned, “I’ll have to wait – I really need this sample.”

Behind her there was a faint rush of air as the object of Bulma’s visit, having felt the Ki of his friends nearby, arrived suddenly, “Krillin! Yamucha!” Gokou sounded absolutely delighted.

Bulma turned and smiled as she watched Gokou greeting his friends then cleared her throat to get his attention.

“Bulma! What’re you doing here?”

“Well, I need some more samples for my research.”

Gokou’s eyebrow twitched and he took a half step backwards, “A sample?”

Bulma shifted her gaze to glare at Krillin and Yamucha meaningfully and both men suddenly realised why she’d decided to come with them. The two briefly exchanged a look, then sighed realising they didn’t really have a choice.

They pounced.

“Noooooo! No needles!!” Gokou landed flat on his face with both Yamucha and Krillin pinning him down and began to struggle for all he was worth.

“You should hurry this up Bulma!” Krillin said and grabbed Gokou’s arms; “We won’t be able to hold him for long.”

Bulma had grabbed the bag she’d been wearing as soon as the two men had gotten Gokou to the ground and had a needle ready in three seconds flat. “Hold his arm still!” she snapped at Krillin and was suddenly on the receiving end of a fairly good death glare.

“Bulma! Get that thing away from me!” Gokou’s voice was slightly hysterical, “This isn’t funny! Guys! Chichi!!?”

Bulma began to growl as she watched for any pauses in Gokou’s wild thrashing to get the needle in his arm then jerked back slightly in surprise as a gloved hand suddenly reached over her shoulder and pinned one of Gokou’s arms flat on the ground.

“Well? Hurry up, Woman! Or I’ll let him go again.”

Bulma ripped her surprised eyes away from Vegeta and quickly jabbed Gokou with the needle.

The man howled.

Narrowing her eyes, Bulma decided to take advantage of the situation and pulled the spare syringes she’d expected to need out of her bag; filling them quickly to get four vials instead of the one she’d been sincerely hoping for.

“There, you big baby, all done.” Bulma began to pat Gokou soothingly on the arm but suddenly he wasn’t lying on the ground anymore. 

Krillin and Yamucha were sprawled across each other to one side and Gokou was running in the opposite direction, dragging a startled and swearing Vegeta behind him. Then the two men were in the air and gone.

Bulma blinked at the sky for a moment and then shrugged, “Well that went a lot better then I expected.”

Stowing the vials safely in her bag Bulma turned and smiled at a half anxious, half embarrassed, Chichi. “Thanks, Chichi. I have to get these back to the lab. Bye!”

With a small wave she set off back the way she had come, humming as she went.

## **

“Stop whining, it was only a small piece of metal; you won’t die.” Vegeta glowered at Gokou from his place on a large rock that had become his normal position when Gokou insisted on visiting his favourite fishing spot.

Gokou glared at Vegeta, rubbing his arm, “You _helped_ them.” He stated accusingly.

Vegeta huffed, exasperated, “Yes, Kakorotto, I helped them. It got the entire thing over with quickly, stopped your pathetic show, and also allowed that woman to get enough blood that she won’t have to get more from you for a while.”

Gokou perked up slightly at the last, “Really?”

Vegeta ignored him.

Gokou waited for a moment then rubbed his arm again thoughtfully. Of all the things in the world he had a fear of needles were the one thing he knew he could never stand up too.

In a way he was glad that Vegeta had stepped in and helped, Bulma _did_ need the blood sample after all, and Gokou would never have been able to stand still and just let her take one. And the way things had happened he hadn’t accidentally hurt anyone either. 

Gokou realised he was staring at Vegeta, in what was beginning to become an unconscious habit, and finally pulled his hand away from his smarting arm.

“Vegeta?” The Saiyan prince remained silent, still ignoring Gokou, but the taller man had learnt, over the past two weeks, that even if the prince was ignoring everything around him, he was also always listening. So Gokou ploughed on regardless of the silence, “Thank you.”

Vegeta didn’t even twitch an eyebrow, Gokou shrugged and pushed himself backwards, sprawling out across the soft grass by the river and closed his eyes, soon falling into a light doze.

## **

Insufferable third-class moron!

Vegeta was fuming.

What kind of example did Kakorotto set for people to judge the true worth of a Saiyan?! No wonder Vegeta had such trouble getting the pathetic earthlings to show him any sort of respect when Kakorotto was reduced to acting like a spoilt human child, throwing a tear filled tantrum at the mere sight of something as insignificant as a needle, and then running away like a terrified idiot!

It galled Vegeta to know that this _fool_ was the strongest man in the universe. He was the first to go Super Saiyan. He was able to defeat any foe. He had seemingly inexhaustible wells of reserve power to call on whenever he needed to become _more_ powerful. And there he was, taking a nap by the side of the river after having been struggling to escape a weak woman with an insignificant piece of metal.

It was insufferable! Unbearable! And Vegeta had absolutely no choice in having to witness it whatsoever.

Slowly releasing a breath, Vegeta slipped further into his meditation and tried to get the thoughts to leave him. To stream away from his consciousness and allow him to have a few moments of calmness amongst the rage of emotion that Kakorotto inspired within him.

He’d been meditating more then normal since the infernal Bond with Kakorotto had been imposed upon him. It helped him to zone out on the other man, though it didn’t seem to be helping the fact that, even deep in meditation, Vegeta was completely and unavoidably aware of the other Saiyan. At any moment of the day or night every movement Kakorotto made was firmly embedded in his brain. And once again he didn’t really have a choice in the matter.

Damn this infernal Bond anyway!!

An entire year like this; an entire year feeling every movement Kakorotto made, going nowhere without the unwanted company, and saying nothing without getting a ridiculous response.

If Bulma didn’t think of a cure quickly – he just might go insane.

## **

##  **Week Three**

  
“Vege~~ta!”

Vegeta absolutely hated it when Gokou said is name like that. His hackles immediately came up, deep burning fires ignited in the depths of his eyes and he nearly always growled. So, Gokou said it like that now, getting the Prince’s attention immediately.

Ignoring the glare Vegeta levelled on him, Gokou bounced over to the Saiyan prince, “Vegeta, could we…”

He was cut off. “No.”

“But…”

“No!”

“You don’t even…”

“No, Kakorotto.”

“But Vege~~ta!”

A growl.

Gokou slumped down, sitting cross-legged on the grass near Vegeta’s rock. Vegeta was becoming more and more unreasonable as time passed and Gokou feared it wouldn’t be long before Vegeta simply trussed him up, dragged him back to his Gravity chamber and wouldn’t release him until the wish had been undone.

Gokou flopped backwards, spreading his arms out across the grass, and stared at the clear blue sky above him.

Three weeks. It wasn’t really that bad… Maybe… He and Vegeta were certainly learning a lot. Their ability to synchronize their fighting styles had reached whole new levels and Gokou’s conviction that he and Vegeta would be a completely unbeatable team grew with each passing day.

And the man’s power level was growing steadily and quickly too, though Gokou was half convinced Vegeta hadn’t even noticed. His training in the Gravity chamber, which Bulma had built for him, made him strong, but it was slow. His everyday training with Gokou though, was pushing him beyond limits he didn’t even know he had.

A ghost of a smile spread across Gokou’s lips. His own power level was increasing rapidly as well; which was lucky for him if he was going to remain one step ahead. The event of the Bond had certainly made things interesting.

Gokou was glad of the power increase for another reason also. That man who had wished them Bonded in the first place.

Things were far too quiet now and Gokou was getting itchy. His instincts insisted that something big was going to happen but for the life of him he didn’t know what.

Sighing he refocused his gaze then turned to Vegeta again, “Just for a little whi…?”

“ _NO_!”

## **

Sleeping. Again.

Vegeta glared down at the slumbering form of his ever-present rival then slipped off of his rock to stand on the soft grass beside him.

How was it that Kakorotto could remain so strong when he trained barely half as much as Vegeta did? What was the secret that kept his Ki spiralling upwards when it was most needed?

Vegeta frowned then allowed himself to slip into a sitting position, his back against his rock and his legs crossed before him. It wasn’t a secret; it just was. Kakorotto’s strength came from his amazing Will, his love for this planet and from the very people he fought to protect. Kakorotto would never lose to evil. Kakorotto would never allow anything to happen to the lives he strove to protect.

Vegeta yanked a handful of grass out of the ground by his knee and began to filter it through his gloved fingers as he continued to watch the face of the man before him. Kakorotto, the strongest in the universe; because he would not fail his friends or the trust of the innocents who didn’t even know he was there to protect them.

Vegeta snorted softly, derisively. Kakorotto the weak, third class fool. Kakorotto the harmless child sent to Earth, from Vegeta-sei, as many of their race’s weak were. Kakorotto the only other pure blooded Saiyan alive, and Prince Vegeta’s only true subject. How ironic…

Vegeta, the true heir to the throne of Vegeta-sei, surpassed by a simple minded, low-level fool whose only true Saiyan characteristic was his desire for battle. And even that only became truly manifest after he’d transformed into a Super Saiyan.

Kakorotto let out a soft sigh in his sleep, puffing his fringe up slightly then resettled, his breaths coming deep and even.

Vegeta followed the path of the dislodged strands of hair with his eyes then, of it’s own volition, his hand moved slowly to smooth those same strands back from the sleeping man’s forehead letting them slip through his fingers as the strands of grass he’d been playing with earlier had. For once the sharp electric feelings that normally accompanied any contact Vegeta made with the other man were curiously muted, as if they were watching. Waiting.

This man was the reason Vegeta stayed on this miserable planet. The only reason he consented to remain near that annoying blue haired earth woman, and the only reason he trained as hard and as long as he did. He had to surpass him. His pride in his lineage, his pride in himself, would not allow this low level soldier to win. No matter how many times he was beaten…he would store the information and go on, strive to be better, to be the best.

Vegeta came out of his thoughts as Gokou’s eyes opened staring up at him in innocent confusion.

Innocence. How did Kakorotto manage to stay so innocent with what he’d been through? How could he be so simple that the many situations that sort him out merely slid passed him, barely piercing his barriers?

“Ve…Vegeta?” Gokou’s voice was hesitant and Vegeta suddenly became aware that he was viewing Kakorotto’s newly opened eyes from a close up view. They were nearly nose-to-nose.

Vegeta jerked backwards releasing his tight grip on Gokou’s hair, which was obviously what had woken the man up, a blush surmounting his features for a moment before being replaced by a scowl.

“Ve…geta?”

Vegeta rose smoothly to his feet and crossed his arms over his chest, “You can visit your friends.” He snapped and glared at an indeterminate piece of thin air.

“Wh…what?” Gokou sat up slowly, watching Vegeta struggle with the blush that kept trying to steal across his cheeks.

“That’s what you wanted to do earlier isn’t it?!” Vegeta turned back to Gokou and growled, “If you’ve changed your mind though, we can go train.”

Gokou shook his head suddenly, “No! No. Let’s go now.”

Vegeta nodded sharply then the two men rose into the air, headed for Kame-house, and leaving Gokou to put aside his odd awakening to think about later.

***

##  **Week Four**

 

\\\\\\- … _o you live from the scene of all this mayhem and disaster! Up above us is what’s believed to be the person responsible for this violent outbreak in the city. Let’s see if we can get a closer look…_ -///

Krillin leaned closer to the TV as the camera began to bounce along, showing disconcerting images of the ground then suddenly came up again, focusing on somebody’s back, high up on top of a building.

\\\\\\-  _And there you have it folks. The ringleader of this uprising and director of the attack! My cameraman and I have risked great perils to bring you this footage and hopefully it will be used to find this man and bring him to justice!_ -///

Krillin’s expression fell into a look of horror as the man turned where he stood and his face was revealed to the camera.

Behind him there was a startled exclamation of surprise and Krillin twisted in his seat to see Juuhachi-gou coming to lean on the back of the couch.

“I… I have to go get Gokou!” Krillin jumped from his seat as his wife nodded and moved to sit down and then he ran out the door, in the air and flying before it had even swung shut behind him.

## **

“ _Haaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh_!!!”

Blinking, Vegeta came out of his meditation and stared at the man going super Saiyan twelve feet away from him.

“Kakorotto… What are you doing?” Vegeta’s voice wasn’t loud but Gokou heard him.

“.. _aaahhhhhhhhhh_ …” The golden aura surrounding Gokou suddenly melted away, taking the blond hair and blue eyes with it. “Vegeta? I thought you were meditating.”

Vegeta glared, “I was until you started playing with the energy currents. What were you doing?”

“Oh.” Gokou rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, “I was just going Super Saiyan.”

Vegeta growled and prayed for patience, “I could _see_ that, Kakorotto. Why?”

Gokou shrugged, “something to do.”

Vegeta stared at Gokou, who’d started grinning inanely, then turned his back on the fool, intending to go back to his meditation.

He’d barely closed his eyes however, when he sensed something in the distance. _Something_ …

“Kakorotto!” Vegeta moved to his feet.

“Hmmm?” Gokou stared at Vegeta for a moment then cast his senses in the direction the prince was staring. “Hey that’s… He’s the one who made the wish!”

Vegeta nodded grimly, “Kakorotto, let’s go.”

Gokou nodded firmly. “Right!”

## **

Krillin landed at Chichi’s front door quickly and banged on the door.

Within seconds it was answered, being pulled open by Gohan.

“Gohan! Where’s Gokou?!”

The fourteen-year-old blinked then shrugged, “He and Vegeta always leave early in the morning. Why?”

“Grrrr…” Krillin growled in thought, “We have to find him; I saw that man that made the wishes with the Dragonball's on the news. He’s attacking a city and we need to get there.”

 “Why don’t we just go? Maybe Dad and Vegeta are already on their way.”

Krillin blinked then nodded, “Right! Come on, Gohan.”

Gohan turned back into the house slightly, “Mum! I’m going with Krillin!” then the two leapt into the air, heading for the city.

## **

“Vegeta. Can you sense him?” Gokou and Vegeta stood on a rise near the city, watching as plumes of smoke announced fires, destruction and maybe worse.

“No. He’s hiding his power level.”

“I thought so.” Gokou frowned and then both he and Vegeta launched themselves into the air, heading into the city.

## **

“Well? What do you think? Can you sense them?”

Gohan dodged a piece of falling masonry and stared around, attempting to find his fathers Ki signature, “I can’t sense anything. There’s so much going on and I think he’s suppressing it.”

“Me too. Hey! Watch it!” Krillin dodged out of the way of a fleeing man and then rejoined Gohan, “Most of the smoke is coming from the centre of the city. We should go see if anyone needs help and put those fires out.”

Gohan nodded in agreement then they began to wind their way further through the city streets.

## **

“Huaaahhhhhhh!!” Gokou and Vegeta’s voices mingled as they used their Ki to smother yet another fire then Vegeta raised his hand, a small Ki-blast making an opening in the rubble for the people stuck in the building to find their way out.

“Where _is_ he!?” Vegeta grit his teeth and fired another blast, clearing more space.

“He’s still here; I know he is.” Gokou helped the last of the innocents out of the building then he and Vegeta exited after them.

“ _Gokou!!”_

“ _Dad!_ ”

Gokou turned as Gohan and Krillin ran over, “Gohan! Krillin! What are you doing here?”

“I saw him on the news, Gokou. That guy who used the Dragonball's! He was here in the city and they said he was the one who did all this.” Krillin responded.

Gokou nodded, “Vegeta and I sensed him here earlier, but now we can’t find him. And the destruction doesn’t seem to be stopping either. The more fires we put out, the more that are starting.”

“I know! Gohan and I have been putting out fires too, but they just aren’t stopping!” 

“So whoever is setting them is following along behind us.” Vegeta stated from where he stood nearby, his arms crossed over his chest and surveying the burning city.

“Vegeta!” Krillin let out a startled shriek, not having realised the man was there, and stumbled backwards.

Vegeta snorted and ignored him. “Those two should keep working on the fires. We should backtrack.”

Gokou nodded slightly then looked at his best friend and son, “Keep helping people, and be careful. Vegeta and I will cover your trail and find whoever is relighting the fires.”

“Right!” Gohan and Krillin chorused then powered up, taking off to the next burning building down the street. 

Gokou and Vegeta went in the opposite direction.

“I can’t see anything…” Gokou muttered, straining to see through the smoke with his eyes and desperately casting around for Ki signatures with his senses.

“Left!” Vegeta barked abruptly and Gokou turned his head quickly, watching as a sudden explosion sent another building into flames. And fleeing from the fire were three flying figures.

“Let’s go!”

## **

It was tiring using Ki to put out fires and Gohan was beginning to feel the strain as he and Krillin moved onto their sixth burning building since leaving his father to search the fires’ back trail.

“Come on, Gohan. We’re doing really well and the fires haven’t been restarting so Gokou must have caught the pyromaniac who’s been following us.” Krillin said.

Gohan slowed slightly, staring backwards, “Do you think he needs some help?”

Krillin glanced backwards too then shook his head, “We’d know if he were in trouble, and he has Vegeta with him. Despite his personality he and Gokou could probably defeat anything.”

Gohan nodded then began to speed up.

“Hey!” Both Krillin and Gohan stopped suddenly as a large man in a business suit suddenly darted out into the air in front of them, “So it’s _you_ scum who’ve been putting out our fires.”

“Wh…what?” Gohan twisted in the air as two other people, a blonde teenage girl and an older looking man, flew up behind them.

“We went to a lot of trouble to set those worthless buildings on fire.” The older man snarled.

“Who are you?!” Krillin demanded.

“We are Servants. We do the bidding of our lord, Domino.” The blonde girl said, then pouted, “But you’re getting in the way of our tasks. Now it’s our task to eliminate you.”

“Oh man. I don’t like the sound of this…” Krillin and Gohan closed ranks, floating back-to-back as the three ‘servants’ began to fly in closer.

Those people look like normal passers-by from the street…but how do they know how to fly?

Krillin ducked as the businessman threw a punch, then ducked a second and a kick. Behind him, Gohan faced off against the older man and the blonde girl hovered in the background, watching. Krillin was getting a really bad feeling about this.

## **

“Haaaaaahhhh!!” Vegeta and Gokou combined an energy blast, knocking their first opponent out of the sky to lay dazed on the ground then turned to the other two. Gokou tried again to question them.

“Who’s ‘Domino’?!”

“He is our Lord!” Two black haired men, twins, answered in unison and Gokou growled.

“Where is he, what does he want?”

“He is here. He wants death.” And the twins attacked again, twisting around either side of the Saiyan’s and boxing them in.

Gokou and Vegeta moved till they were back-to-back and then released Ki-blasts once again, but this time they were deflected, arcing downwards to send sprays of harmless rubble into the air. Soon the third man, a surfer by the look of him, rejoined the twins and they began to close in again.

“We don’t have _time_ for this, Kakorotto!” Vegeta snarled.

“I know!” Gokou dodged a series of punches then retaliated, knocking one of the twins back in the air, “But I don’t want to hurt them; they look like normal people. I’m guessing this _Domino_ has possessed them somehow.”

“Then how do you…” Vegeta used a Ki-blast to throw the second twin plummeting towards the ground then dodged a badly aimed kick from the Surfer and retaliated with his own, better aimed, “…explain their abilities!?”

Gokou growled and spun underneath his opponent, grabbing his feet and thrusting him downwards to meet his twin as he flew back up from where Vegeta had blasted him, “I don’t  _know_ !”

“Then let’s just blast our way through them! Maybe they’re working for their ‘Lord’ willingly.”

“And maybe they’re not!”

“Kakorotto! We’ll be here forever if you keep procrastinating!” So saying, Vegeta powered up, knocking the three men back to crash into various buildings around them; plumes of dust and rubble flying into the air to indicate their impacts.

“Veg _eta_!”

“Let’s just keep looking, Kakorotto! They’re dealt with.”

## **

“Oh man!” Krillin got up from where he’d been knocked through a concrete wall and searched around quickly for Gohan, seeing him after a moment, attempting to fight off the man in the business suit and the blonde girl. “Oh great! So where’s…!”

A solid blow to the back of his head answered Krillin’s question and sent him sprawling forwards, ending up half buried in a pile a loose rock.

“ _Krillin!!_ ” Gohan abandoned his opponents and raced to stand over his downed friend.

“Why won’t you be a good boy and die!?” The blonde girl asked as she and her companion came to land next to the older man; the three surrounding Gohan.

“Haaa!” Gohan attacked the older man, leaping through the air but was knocked backwards again to land beside Krillin who was dazedly sitting up.

Krillin blinked as he suddenly noticed the three balls of red energy about to be unleashed on them and closed his eyes, expecting the worst.

“ _Piccilo!_ ”

Krillin let one eye open as Gohan let out his exuberant yell and took in the scene. One green Namekian; cloak covered and smirking. Three pissed off looking servants of Domino climbing to their feet a few feet away. Time to go find Gokou.

“Hey! We have to get to Gokou!” Krillin climbed to his feet and shot up into the air and was followed quickly by Piccilo and Gohan.

Streaking through the air towards where they could now see more signs of fighting, the three Z fighters raced to stay ahead of their pursuers.

## **

“Aaaaarrggghhh!!”

Vegeta threw the two men who’d attached themselves to his arms off and then powered up again in frustration glaring over at a wild looking Kakorotto.

“Kakorotto! I don’t _care_ if they’re civilians! If another one of them attaches themselves to me I will start killing them!”

“Vegeta, we can’t!”

“We have too! There are to many of them to be careful!”

The two men had barely flown far when they had been ambushed by another five of the human’s turned servants of Domino and Vegeta’s short fuse had long expired.

“ _Dad!_ ”

“ _Gokou!!”_

Vegeta dodged another flailing servant and dropped to the ground as Gohan, Piccilo and Krillin finally joined them, bringing another three of the pests that the Saiyan Prince desperately wanted to destroy.

“Gohan! Krillin! Are you alright?” Gokou touched down on the ground and Ki-blasted two servants out of the air, hopefully only knocking them unconscious.

“Gokou! What is up with these people?” Piccilo demanded and Gokou dropped flat against the ground to avoid a hurtling body, then jumped back to his feet.

“They call themselves, Servants. They’re possessed by a man called Domino!”

“Is he the one who made the wish?” Krillin demanded as he and Gohan finally knocked the blonde girl unconscious and looked around to help the others.

“I don’t…” Gokou saw a flash of red light out of the corner of his eye and spun on his heel in time to see a Ki-blast come flying out from a gap between two buildings. The blast was different from the ones that the servants had been using, Gokou could tell immediately. This one had power and would do some serious damage if it hit someone.

Gokou’s eyes flickered to track the blast’s path; it was heading straight for Vegeta’s unguarded back.

Vegeta!

“ _Vegeta_!!” Gokou threw himself across the short distance that separated him from the prince and knocked Vegeta out of the way, cradling him in his arms and curling his own body protectively around the smaller Saiyan’s; staying still even after they’d hit the ground.

Everything around them went silent as the fighting drew to a temporary halt, then Vegeta stirred slightly, pushing against Gokou’s chest.

“Get off me, Kakorotto.”

Gokou tightened his arms slightly his heart still beating wildly from the fright he’d gotten when he’d seen the Ki-blast arc out of nowhere.

“Kakorotto.” Vegeta growled warningly and Gokou finally loosened his grip a little.

A small clatter and a shower of rocks to their left suddenly alerted the two Saiyan’s that someone was standing on top the rubble above them.

“How sweet.” A half familiar voice purred, “Would you be so quick to hurl yourself in front of him to _take_ the blast as well, Son Gokou?”

Gokou frowned but didn’t look around or relinquish his protective position over Vegeta. Instead he watched the expression on the prince’s face and realised he was correct about the identity of the familiar voice.

“You will not face me, Son Gokou? That is quite rude, but then I suppose you are distracted enough by the man in your arms. I would guess I am not as interesting.”

Gokou tensed slightly at the last words but remained silent, his senses moving out to where Krillin, Gohan and Piccilo stood close by, listening intently.

“Very well. I guess I will have to make an attempt at becoming more interesting in your eyes. The Bond. Yes, I see that got your attention.” The voice smirked. “I thought maybe I would tell you a small amount about the Bond that I placed upon you and your… _companion_. Would you like me too?”

The man waited, listening for a response and smiled when Vegeta nailed him with a glare over Gokou’s shoulder.

“ _Kisama_! How do you get it off!?”

“Off?” Domino flicked his eyes to his fingernails and began to examine them negligently, “I am afraid it does not come off – Unless you were to acquire and utilise the Dragonball's of course.

“However I suspect you will not be able to do _that_. I fully expect you will be quite dead by then.”

Vegeta stirred slightly, but Gokou didn’t move except to narrow his eyes and give Vegeta a quelling look.

“Your death will be a great deal easier to achieve now you have the Bond upon you.” The man’s eyes glittered and he finally looked back at the two Saiyan's. “It works on more then simply _physical_ distance – it Binds you _spiritually_ as well. So if one of you were to meet an untimely demise, the other shall follow.

“And also, to make it that much harder for you; the twelve foot distance you have today will be growing a great deal smaller very soon. And will steadily decrease as time moves on… Though I begin to think you may not mind that so much. You seem quite comfortable as close as you are right now.”

A low chuckle came from above. Gokou clenched his jaw and finally gave in to Vegeta’s insistence that he move, rolling to the side and revealing Vegeta’s gloved hands and the powerful Ki-blast he’d been building up as their enemy talked, it’s density hidden by Gokou’s own aura.

No sooner had Gokou moved, then Vegeta released the blast upwards, catching the man by surprise and hitting him dead on.

The area was immediately engulfed in clouds of smoke, dust and debris and both Saiyan’s leapt to their feet. Ready.

“Come out! _Kisama!_ ” Vegeta snarled getting ready to release another blast into the smoke but was suddenly lynched from behind, as was Gokou.

The two men struggled to get away from the unending sea of servants.

“ _Gokou!”_

“ _Dad!”_

The smoke finally cleared, revealing the area to be empty.

“That was not very nice, _Prince_ Vegeta.” A snarling voice came from above them but Gokou couldn’t see anything for the bodies that covered him. 

“I think it is time I showed you both a small amount of my power, besides how I gather my servants of course. Enjoy, _Saiyan’s!_ ”

Gokou hurled a mass of bodies off of himself in time to see the giant blast of bright red energy that came hurtling towards he and Vegeta.

One thing entered his mind before the blast hit. He had to protect Vegeta!

Screaming something unintelligible, Gokou freed himself from the last of the servants and threw himself through the air again, knocking Vegeta back into the writhing sea of Servants and covering him completely with his own body.

Then everything went red.


	3. Three

#  _**Chapter Three**_ :

Vegeta sat silently on one side of the room and watched as Piccilo, followed by Krillin and Bulma, gently put the mess that was Kakorotto on the bed.

Lost in whatever dark dreams gripped him, the earth-raised Saiyan thrashed his arms weakly and moaned; his voice raw from all the screaming he’d been doing earlier.

Vegeta shut his eyes briefly. Most of that shrieking had been done when the bigger man had still been sprawled out protectively over Vegeta and illogically the prince could still hear it. The sound echoed in his eardrums, pulsed along his nerves and throbbed in time with the phantom aches he could feel from the unconscious man.

Instinctively, Vegeta’s arms came up and he hugged himself.

The fool! What business did he have taking the complete power of that blast anyway?! Did he _really_ want to get them both killed? Kakorotto had gone too far! Vegeta wasn’t some weak earthling in need of protection; he was a Saiyan! An elite! Prince of an entire race of proud Warriors!

Gokou moaned again, brokenly, and Vegeta’s eyes snapped back open and fixed on him. He could barely see the man through the caked blood and seeping cuts. Anywhere actual skin was visible it was nothing but bright red blistering burns, frail flakes that split and oozed as the man tried to move.

Vegeta’s hands began to rub at his arms absently as he tried to block out the pain of Kakorotto’s wounds. His own injuries paled in significance to the other man’s and Vegeta was finding it hard to not be guilty about it. He should have those wounds too. He, Vegeta, should be in just as bad shape, probably worse, not perched on the edge of a second bed with light scratches and insignificant area’s of mildly scalded flesh.

“Ve..Vegeta…” Gokou managed to get the word out of his torn throat and the prince’s eyebrow twitched. He didn’t want this. Didn’t want Kakorotto’s protection, his concern, his _pity_. He didn’t want the other man hurt because of him. He could have handled it; he would have survived the blast. It would have hurt, but he would have lived. Kakorotto didn’t have to…

“ _Krillin_!!” The single door to the room flew open and Kakorotto’s oldest son crashed through it, breathing hard. “I’ve got…got the beans.”

The boy had immediately left to seek out Korrin and get some of the energy giving Senzu beans as soon as the dust had settled and the state Kakorotto was in had been revealed. Now he rushed across the room, his horrified eyes pinned to his father as he handed the slim bag to Krillin.

Still rubbing his arms, Vegeta watched agitatedly and wished they’d just hurry up.

## **

“Gokou! _Gokou!_ Come on, man! Wake up a little, you need to eat this.” 

Red.

Everything was red. Blinding. Glaring. Couldn’t think… Why couldn’t he move? Where was he? What had happened?

Red.

All he could remember was red. Red and…and he had to…to protect…protect…had to protect… _Vegeta!_

Where was Vegeta? Was he hurt? _Have to find him_!

Gokou struggled to move, to sit up. “Ve…Vegeta?!” his voice was rough, his throat raw. Had he been screaming?

Hands. There were hands trying to hold him down. _Off! Get off. Vegeta!_

“Gokou! Gokou, he’s alright – You have to eat this!” something was pushed against his lips, but he pushed it away, still struggling to sit up.

“Where’s…where’s Vegeta!?” _Hurts… Still can’t see…still red._

A second set of hands joined the first, holding him down. He struggled harder.

“Gokou, he’s fine – he’s right here. Vegeta, damnit! _Say_ something, he has to eat this!”

There was a tense silence then footsteps. “Give me that!”

Gokou suddenly stopped struggling. He knew that voice.

“Kakorotto! Hurry up and eat this so we can get out of here!”

Whatever it was they were insisting he eat was shoved roughly into his mouth and then a gloved hand clamped his jaw shut.

“Vegeta! You’ll choke him!”

“Shut up, woman! Do you want him to eat it or not?!”

_Vegeta!_ He was safe.

Gokou finally complied and slowly, painfully chewed and swallowed the object in his mouth. A moment later he opened his eyes, as the healing properties of the senzu kicked in, and looked around the room.

## **

The Senzu beans were wondrous things and they ever amazed Vegeta. Even more so this time as he watched Kakorotto’s entire body knit itself back together in a matter of seconds. Cuts sealed themselves, red aching skin cleared and the many places where his limbs had looked like nothing but raw meat fixed themselves in good order, and soon the pains Vegeta felt were merely his own.

“Gokou, are you alright?” The blue haired woman clutched at Kakorotto’s arm, staring anxiously at his face as if she could read the answer there.

The man blinked once, regaining his senses, then focused immediately on Vegeta.

Relief.

The emotion washed over Vegeta as he stared into Kakorotto’s eyes and the prince glared, retrieving his tingling fingers from where they had still been resting against the man’s jaw.

“Gokou?” Bulma tried again and he finally looked away from Vegeta and focused on her.

“I’m alright, Bulma. What happened? I only remember seeing the blast coming…”

There was an immediate cacophony of sound as Bulma, Krillin and Gohan tried to answer at once. Gokou laughed and held up his hand for silence and then pointed at Krillin.

The small man rubbed his hand through his short hair. “All we saw was the blast. It went straight down and made the entire area explode. When everything settled and we managed to get to you though…” Krillin hesitated and his eyes flickered to Vegeta with a strange look, “You’d thrown yourself over Vegeta and taken the entire thing yourself. You were a mess…”

Gokou laughed lightly, “I feel like I was a mess. Gohan,” Gokou reached out and ruffled his son’s hair, “thank you for getting the Senzu so quickly.”

“How did you get yourself into that kind of situation?!” Bulma demanded, her composure back now that she knew Gokou was fine, “You _both_ know you shouldn’t be fighting in the condition you’re in!”

“Bulma! We’re Bonded, not dying.” Gokou protested but Bulma would have none of it.

“Krillin told me what that Domino man said about your Bond. If something happens to one of you the other will die too! You shouldn’t have been so foolish! You should have left and not tried to fight!”

“We didn’t really have a choice, Bulma.” Gokou scratched the back of his head with one hand, “And I didn’t really expect him to be that powerful.”

As they spoke, Vegeta retreated silently across the room again. There had been a flicker of…something in Kakorotto’s eyes when Bulma had mentioned the possibility of dying. He’d glanced at Vegeta quickly then away, not even pausing with his response.

_If one dies, the other does too_ . Had Vegeta been  _wrong_ about the man’s motivation for protecting him? Vegeta clenched his hand and held it tight against his leg. Had Kakorotto only been looking out for his own continued existence? It didn’t seem like a very  _Kakorotto_ thing to do…except; how would he fight Domino if he were dead?

Had Kakorotto taken the full power of the blast to make sure Vegeta didn’t die, so that he would have a chance to fight the one who’d thrown it?

Of course. Why else would someone, even Kakorotto, do something so foolish for Vegeta’s protection? It wasn’t some misguided feeling of affection making Kakorotto care if the prince lived or died. It was simply his desire for battle.

Another simple, yet horribly obvious, realisation hit Vegeta - hard.

Kakorotto hadn’t thought Vegeta would survive.

Vegeta had been _worried_ about the man, had felt _guilty_ that he’d allowed himself to be protected when it wasn’t needed and all the while Kakorotto had deemed it necessary to risk himself in the blast because he thought Vegeta was _weak_.

_He… I…_ Vegeta suddenly felt empty. Empty and cold, then the anger came.  _Weak! I am not weak! I am a prince! An elite! I am not_ weak!

A sudden splintering of wood and a stunned silence brought Vegeta out of his thoughts and made him aware that his hand was now partway lodged in the wall. And he was growling.

_Damn you, Kakorotto!_ Vegeta yanked his hand out of the wall, pieces of wood cluttering to the floor, and turned to face the third-class fool.

“Are you finished here, Kakorotto!?” 

“I…ahhh…I guess…” Gokou replied, bewildered.

“You are _not_ going anywhere!” Bulma butted in and jumped to her feet, “What if Domino is out _looking_ for you?!”

Vegeta didn’t even listen to the woman. Simply turned to the doorway and began to leave.

“Vegeta! Shouldn’t you at least take a Senzu?” Gokou queried not moving from where he still sat on the bed.

Vegeta growled, “I don’t need one of those _things_!” he bit out then resumed his exit. Kakorotto could be damned if he wanted to stay there, Vegeta was leaving, Bond or no Bond.

The pain had barely begun in his chest however, when it eased again and Kakorotto appeared, following along silently behind him.

## **

“Did anything about that seem a little odd to you guys?” Krillin asked slowly as he stared at the now empty doorway.

“Gee Krillin. Do you mean from the moment we got Gokou in here, the fact that the only one who could calm him was _Vegeta,_ or when Vegeta put his hand through the wall?” Bulma replied, her voice thick with sarcasm.

“All of it.” Krillin said seriously and looked at Gohan and Piccilo, “Even that whole conversation with Domino was strange.”

Gohan shifted uncomfortably, “That was _really_ odd.”

“What? What about it was odd?” Bulma’s eyes moved from Krillin to Gohan, then to Piccilo.

“The way Domino was talking to them.” Krillin said slowly, speculatively, “It was like he was goading them and hinting at something going on.”

“Something like _what_?”

Krillin frowned in thought, going over the conversation again and the implications.

“He kept saying my dad liked Vegeta.” Gohan said with a shrug and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Bulma was puzzled. “Liked? What’s so odd about that, we all know that Gokou likes Vegeta.”

“Like mum likes dad.”

Bulma’s mouth formed a small O, “That’s impossible.”

“And highly unlikely besides.” Krillin added.

“That Domino is a madman.” Bulma declared with a snort and then headed to the door, “Come on, guys. I’ll get you something to eat.”

As the others filed out of the room, Piccilo watched silently then headed for the window. It was good that Gokou’s friends had such faith in him – but Piccilo wasn’t so sure he shared it.

## **

“Vegeta?”

Gokou was following Vegeta as the man walked through the Capsule corp. complex; Gokou knew the path and wasn’t surprised when they ended up at the doorway to the Gravity Chamber.

“What?!” Vegeta snapped, not bothering to look up as he keyed in the access code to open the door.

“You’re mad at me.” Gokou stated.

No reply.

Vegeta was tense. Had been since half way though Gokou’s conversation with Bulma – Gokou just didn’t know why.

The two men entered the Gravity Chamber quickly and Gokou jumped as the door slammed shut behind him then went back to watching Vegeta. Gokou couldn’t believe he was going to start training. Vegeta wasn’t in any state to be doing any kind of fighting. He was covered in burn marks, cuts and bruises; he was noticeably favouring his left arm and was walking with quite a limp. He needed to take a Senzu bean, so why had he refused it?

“Vegeta?” He tried again.

“Be quiet, Kakorotto!” Vegeta spun to face him and Gokou took a half step back at the fury, and some other unidentifiable emotion, that raged in his eyes. “Just sit down, and be quiet. I don’t want to hear your voice, I don’t want to see your face and I don’t want to know you are even _here_!”

Gokou’s eyes went wide as Vegeta abruptly turned back to the Gravity chamber’s controls then simply slumped to the floor.

What had he done? Was Vegeta mad at him because he’d taken the full Ki-blast that Domino had aimed at them? Gokou pulled his knees up and rested his chin on them, wrapping his arms around his legs. He couldn’t have stopped himself from doing it. He knew Vegeta could handle it but… He’d acted instinctively. He had to protect Vegeta, especially now that he was weakened by having to stay close to his rival.

Weakened? Gokou buried his head in his knees to muffle his groan. Weakness was something that Vegeta would not tolerate and, he realised, in trying to protect him, Gokou had inadvertently brought the subject up. Now the prince had something to prove.

How was he going to fix this? Gokou looked up at where Vegeta was now pushing himself through a series of warming up exercises and did the only thing he could think of.

“Vegeta, I’m sorry.”

## **

Vegeta turned back to the Gravity Chamber’s control panel and contemplated the dials. He shouldn’t have yelled. Impotent anger is what had spurred him to it and all he’s succeeded in doing was proving he really was weak. _No!_

Vegeta thumped his hand on the panel then set the gravity at 100. It was an insignificant number, but about all he could handle in his current state. Like Gokou, he had noticed the full extent of his injuries on the short walk across the capsule corp. complex and he grudgingly admitted that anything stronger and he would probably fall flat on his face. He couldn’t allow that, not in front of Kakorotto. He had to prove his strength, not make a fool of himself.

_I am not weak!_ Vegeta moved away from the control panel and began a series of warm-ups, using the phrase as a near mantra. _I am not weak! I am the Prince of the Saiyan race and no third-class_ soldier _will imply otherwise!_

He stumbled slightly as he came down to hard on his bad leg but ignored the pain and continued.

I am strong. I have the blood of Kings in my veins. Proud warriors! Strong fighters!

“Vegeta.”

I told you to be quiet!

“I’m sorry.”

Vegeta, his back to the other man, stopped moving instantly, his hands dropping to hang by his sides.

The words hung in the almost deafening silence and then Vegeta let his hands curl into fists again.

“I thought I told you to be quiet, Kakorotto!”

Gokou flinched at the words but persisted. “I know. But I’m sorry. I didn’t mean too…” Gokou bit his tongue suddenly. He knew better then to say it out loud; that would just make it worse. He had to try a different tact.

“I was scared, when I saw the blast coming. It was to late to get away and I didn’t know if you’d seen it or not. Taking the blast was the only thing I could think of, I didn’t want you to get hurt.” Gokou was admitting everything to his knees. He refused to look up at Vegeta, didn’t want to see his apology rebuffed as so many before it had been. 

Silence.

Vegeta was feeling a rush of confusing emotions.

So Kakorotto had proved him wrong. Again. He hadn’t been insinuating Vegeta was weak. Hadn’t been making certain he’d stay alive to fight Domino. He’d simply been protecting a fellow fighter. Vegeta’s shoulders were knotted with tension.

Kakorotto had only been acting like his true simple, idiot self. And true to form he was snivelling for forgiveness the instant he realised his error.

But Vegeta felt better. Perhaps Kakorotto _had_ been…worried for him?

Vegeta suddenly let his muscles relax.

“Kakorotto.”

Behind the prince, Gokou’s head jerked up hopefully.

“I no longer feel like training. Get up so we can leave.”

A delighted grin spread across Gokou’s face and he was on his feet in seconds, “Right! Ahhh… Vegeta?”

Vegeta finished switching off the gravity machine and turned to glare at Gokou, “What?”

“Do you want a Senzu now?” Gokou asked hopefully.

Vegeta glared, but Gokou grabbed at the sash around his waist and presented a small bean for Vegeta’s inspection.

“Since I have it here?”

“Fine!” Vegeta snapped finally and grabbed the thing out of Gokou’s hand as he passed him, a brief bolt of feeling shooting up his arm at the contact, and swallowed it as he headed out the door, “Anything to make you shut up.”

## **

“Eleven feet.” Bulma turned from her computer and confirmed her earlier declaration to one Saiyan Prince’s complete dismay.

“So what Domino said is true?! The distance is getting smaller?” Vegeta demanded and Bulma nodded firmly.

“You saw it as well as I did, that was eleven feet.”

“And the pain was more intense then it was before too.” Gokou cut in quietly.

Vegeta growled, “Have you come up with _any_ idea’s about how to get rid of this infernal Bond yet, woman?!”

Bulma’s hackles lifted and she glared at the Saiyan prince, “No I _haven’t_ , but certainly not for lack of trying! It’s not like I can simply pull a solution out of thin air you know! I still don’t even know what level the Bond is _on_!”

“It’s bound our Ki together you stupid woman! That’s quite obvious!”

“Oh, _obvious_ is it?! Then maybe you’d like to pinpoint _where_ exactly in your aura’s the connection is so I can _see_ it!”

Vegeta glared at Bulma furiously.

“I _thought_ so.” Bulma crossed her arms over her chest superiorly. “Now _if_ you don’t mind, I have _work_ to do.” The woman glared at the two Saiyan’s till Gokou finally, with a tired look at Vegeta, left the room; forcing the angry prince to follow.

_Damned woman_ . Presuming to act superior around him, a Prince! If she spent less time arguing with her superiors and more time actually  _working_ on their problem it might have been solved by now. But of course the woman wouldn’t, she probably had no concept of how important her job was anyway. Did she even understand how dangerous this entire situation was? 

“Be quiet.”

Vegeta blinked and stared at Gokou as if the man had gone insane, “what?”

Gokou stopped walking and turned to look at Vegeta, rubbing his temple in an attempt to ease the tension there, “You’re giving me a headache.” Gokou said just as quietly as he’d told the prince to be quiet.

What the hell was this third-class moron on about? “I haven’t said anything since we left that woman, Kakorotto.” Vegeta said levelly.

Gokou stared at Vegeta blankly, still rubbing his temple, “You’ve been complaining about Bulma since we left. Could you just give it a rest for once?”

Vegeta was suddenly speechless. Kakorotto had _heard_ what Vegeta had been thinking as they walked? How? How long had he been able to do that? Since the Bond? Like Vegeta had been able to feel Kakorotto’s pain, or even his presence? It hadn’t occurred to Vegeta that Kakorotto would be able to do that too. What had he heard? “I haven’t _said_ anything.” Vegeta growled and Gokou’s expression turned uncharacteristically irritated.

“Fine, you haven’t said anything. Just do me a favour and not say it more quietly.”

Vegeta wasn’t sure how to react. Normally he’d address the fact that Kakorotto was picking his thoughts out of his head, and probably had been for the past month, except that there was something wrong. Kakorotto never acted like this. Vegeta had never heard him tell anyone to be quiet much less grow irritated with them.

“Could we just go somewhere quiet?” Gokou said finally into the tense silence and Vegeta simply nodded, his eyes pinned to the other man assessively.

He wasn’t really surprised when Kakorotto led him out of the city to the place by the river that he favoured; it just confirmed to Vegeta that the man had something on his mind.

Settling himself on his rock, Vegeta wondered why he should even care. It was Kakorotto after all, not anybody important. …Except that it was _Kakorotto_. The man didn’t have an irritable bone in his body so why was he acting so…well…bad tempered?

The two men sat in complete silence, Vegeta studying Gokou silently and Gokou, his knees loosely drawn up to his chest, frowning at the grass between his feet.

The air was tense and, unsurprisingly, it was Vegeta who finally snapped, his hackles up from the complete _wrongness_ of the situation.

“What is it!?” Vegeta glared at Gokou, startling the man out of his thoughts.

Gokou’s eyes snapped to Vegeta then widened, his expression turning regretful, “I’m sorry, Vegeta. I didn’t mean to snap at you earlier.”

Vegeta’s eyes narrowed, “I could care less, Kakorotto. Now explain yourself.”

Gokou shook his head slowly and then shrugged, his entire demeanour seeming to change in an instant. “It’s nothing at all, Vegeta. Hey, do you think Chichi will let us grab something to eat?” As he spoke, the earth raised Saiyan rose to his feet and grinned, “I’m starved!!”

Vegeta growled faintly but also rose to his feet. Nothing could stop Gokou on a quest for food and Vegeta had learnt to not even try.

## **

Yamucha glared at his watch briefly then flicked his eyes back to the road before him in time to narrowly avoid careening into the side of a braking truck.

A lucky miss. He had no idea what he’d do if he crashed _this_ car; he hadn’t even finished paying it off yet and his bank manager had started refusing to see him.

His quick glance at his watch had managed to do only one thing, other than nearly cause a crash; it had proved, without a doubt, that Yamucha was very, _very_ late.

Hopefully his date, Celli, wasn’t _too_ mad. He was only running a _little_ behind, only about…45 minutes.

Maybe he should have picked up some flowers – and chocolates. Chocolates always went down well…

It was too late now though.

By the time Yamucha had brought his car around the final corner of his journey, in a death defying spin that almost made him collect a Van, a Mailbox and two pedestrians, and hurriedly parked, he was bordering on an hour late. Celli was going to be furious.

And she was.

Celli, a small blonde girl dressed in a pink and yellow mini-dress and matching shoes, was standing with her arms crossed over her chest, one high-heel clad foot was tapping the footpath impatiently and if looks could kill, Yamucha didn’t really trust his chances for survival.

“You’re late!” Celli growled in greeting as Yamucha stepped out of his car.

He laughed nervously, “I know, Celli. I’m sorry, I couldn’t get away faster and then all this traffic got in my way.”

“Get away from _where_?”

“Oh. I was just…ahhh…visiting some friends. Their house is quite far…uhmm…out of town.” In truth, Yamucha had been out at the tiny island that held Kame house, catching up on events from Krillin. He’d ended up staying so long that he’d barely had enough time to fly back to his house, get changed and begin the drive across town.

Celli glared at Yamucha for a little while longer then relaxed, latching onto Yamucha’s arm and snuggling close to him. “So should we get going? You promised me dinner, right?”

“Ahhh…” Celli’s sudden change in attitude caught Yamucha off balance, “Ahhh…yeah. I did.”

“Well let’s go then! We’re going to Mardukes.”

“M…Mardukes?” Yamucha yelled the word, catching the attention of a few passers-by, “I… But… That’s…”

Celli’s grip on his arm tightened slightly and her expression turned slightly icy, “Are you saying ‘No’? After you left me standing here for an _hour_?”

Yamucha groaned internally and gave in, “No, of course not. Let’s go.” And with a sinking heart and wondering how he was going to explain this to his credit card company, he escorted his girlfriend to the most expensive restaurant in the area.

## **

In the end, Yamucha _had_ ended up buying Celli flowers. After the marginally filling and outrageously expensive meal at Mardukes, Celli had insisted on taking a walk through town and, after spotting the beautiful bouquet, had insisted Yamucha buy them for her. With a regretful glance at his slim wallet, Yamucha had given in easily and bought the flowers and given them to the girl himself complete with a smile and gallant kiss on the cheek. Celli had blushed rosily and, to Yamucha’s relief, he realised he was finally off the hook for being late. Afterwards they had continued their walk and were now strolling quietly through a peaceful and delightfully _private_ park, only dimly lit with sporadic street lamps.

“Yamucha. I had a great time tonight.” Celli’s voice floated up from where she was snuggled securely against her date’s side with his arm around her shoulders.

“Yea…yeah. Me too.” Yamucha said and tightened his grip on her.

“I’m sorry I made you spend so much money on dinner.” Celli offered after a moment.

Yamucha laughed quietly, “It was my own fault for being late.”

“Well then, I hope you learnt your lesson.” Celli glanced up at Yamucha so he could see her eyes sparkling with amusement.

Her eyes were really quite beautiful. Normally they were a deep blue but tonight, with the thin light from the street lamps and the brighter light of the moon they seemed to glow violet. Before he quite knew what he was doing, Yamucha stopped walking and pulled the girl around to face him, bringing his head down and pressing his lips gently against hers. It was delightful. Her lips were soft and, with barely a hesitation, they responded to his gentle enquiry and parted giving him permission to make the kiss deeper. Encircling her completely in his arms, Yamucha did just that and suddenly he didn’t mind so much about the expensive dinner or even the flowers. All that really mattered was the girl in his arms and the feelings that coursed through him.

It was a pity then that, as Yamucha lost himself in the kiss, someone was creeping up behind him and before he even realised there was someone else nearby he was slumping to the ground unconscious; a sharp, burning feeling at the back of his neck plunging him painfully into darkness.

## **

Chichi staggered slightly under the weight of the two overflowing grocery bags she carried precariously in each arm and paused for a moment in her hike home to regain her balance. After all she had gone through four years ago to get Gokou his drivers licence so she wouldn’t have to tramp into town once a week to replenish supplies she was doing it once again. All thanks to that annoying wish and the bond to Vegeta it had created. Why the two men couldn’t help with the shopping was beyond her, it was only a short trip and between the two of them, Chichi was sure they could figure out what they were doing.

Chichi entertained herself briefly with a fantasy of being able to stay at home while Gokou and Vegeta did the shopping. The fantasy was abruptly halted however when she realised that asking the two men to do something, even as simple as shopping, together would probably result in the destruction of half the city. Chichi sighed and, hefting the bags a little higher for a better grip, began her journey once again.

“Uhmm… Excuse me?”

Surprised, Chichi turned and regarded the teenage girl who was addressing her. The girl looked like she was out for a run, dressed in a loose blue and yellow tracksuit and removing a set of headphones from her ears.

“Are you alright there?” the girl asked, “Would you like some help?”

Chichi glared at the girl suspiciously then sighed, “I’m going to far. I live nearly an hour’s walk from here. But thank you.”

“An hour?! You must live quiet far up in the mountains. Are you sure you don’t want some help? I don’t mind, an hour’s walk is just as much exercise as an hours jogging.” 

“Well….”

“Don’t worry,” The girl stepped forward and took one of the bags from Chichi and smiled brightly, “I won’t steal it. I have all the food I could possible want at home, even a whole supermarket if I wanted one.”

Chichi stared, “A whole supermarket!?”

“Sure!” The girl began walking along the road, “Papa always buys me what I want and a supermarket would barely cost anything.”

“So your family’s rich?” Chichi demanded and hurried to catch up to the girl.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say _rich_.” The girl grinned back at Chichi, “Just…comfortable.”

“Comfortable?” Chichi looked the girl up and down. The clothing was certainly of good make and she talked like she came from good breeding. “How many rooms does your house have?”

“Rooms?” The girl looked slightly perplexed, “Well I don’t know. Which house? We’re staying at our holiday home in West city at the moment and I think that has about twenty rooms, but our main house on Ferule Island has so many I’ve never been able to count them. I used to go exploring when I was little but I still don’t think I’ve seen all of them.”

Chichi felt her mouth go wide as the girl spoke then smiled and held out a hand to her, “My name’s Chichi.”

The girl blushed rosily, “I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself. I’m Deejay.”

The two women shook hands as they proceeded up into the mountains and Chichi decided that maybe it wasn’t so bad that Gokou hadn’t been able to drive her into town. _This_ time.

## **

Vegeta was lazing with his back against a rock and his feet crossed before him. Eleven feet away to the left and slightly in front of him, Gokou sat cross-legged, watching alertly.

What he was watching was a three-year-old Goten and a four-year-old Trunks circling each other in mid-air, Super Saiyan energy crackling around them as they waited for an opportunity to attack.

Further still to the left, and also floating in mid-air, was Gohan. He was watching the two smaller Super Saiyan's and waiting for his own opportunity to attack. At the most inconvenient time he could manage with as much surprise as possible.

Vegeta was so bored he was nearly asleep and indeed, the only thing keeping him awake was the short bursts of excitement he was feeling from Kakorotto every few moments as the battle between their children progressed.

Another, intense burst of said mentioned emotion finally made Vegeta give in and open his eyes, blinking as his eyes readjusted to the light and glanced upwards. It wasn’t a very exciting fight in Vegeta’s eyes, but he was pleased to note that Trunks was winning.

“Kakorotto! How much longer are we going to sit around wasting our time? We should be training ourselves, not watching those brats play!”

Gokou pulled his eyes away from the battle above for a moment and glanced back at Vegeta, “But this is important too. We’ll probably need everyone we can get when things heat up and I don’t think we’re going to be much help.”

“Nonsense! If you want to give them _real_ training then they should be sparring against us, not each other!”

“I want to see how well they do fighting against Gohan first.” Gokou said firmly and turned back to his study of the battle, which now had Gohan deeply involved.

Vegeta swore and slumped back against the rock behind him. Here they were watching children fight play battles while somewhere out in the world, Domino was gathering his forces, getting stronger and who knew what else. It was true that in a couple more months Vegeta and Kakorotto _would_ be unable to help much, but that was why they should be searching for Domino _now_. Not wasting time.

“I know how you feel, Vegeta.” Gokou said over his shoulder, startling Vegeta. “But this is more important. Domino won’t let us find him till he wants to be found so we have no choice but to prepare for it the only way we can.”

Vegeta scowled. Kakorotto was picking his brain again! “Stay out of my head, Kakorotto!”

Gokou shot Vegeta a frown over his shoulder before looking upwards again, “What are you talking about?”

“Stop picking the thoughts out of my head, idiot.”

“I’m not.”

Vegeta growled. The imbecile didn’t even realise he was doing it. What did he think? That Vegeta had suddenly decided to open up and share his thoughts with the world? Actually, he probably did, and Vegeta had no idea how he was supposed to explain what Kakorotto was doing and get him to stop.

Scowling deeply again, Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest and then resolutely shut his eyes again, blocking out everything around him.

## **

“Thank you for the help.” Chichi said with a rare smile and put the last tin from the groceries into the cupboard. 

“It was no trouble at all, Chichi.” Deejay leaned on the counter and grinned, looking around. “This is a really nice place. Cosy.”

“Thank you.” Chichi said, not sure if she should be proud or not.

“I mean it!” Deejay said with a laugh at the uncertain look on Chichi’s face. “I expected that small houses would be pokey and annoying, but this is really nice!” Her tone turned musing, “I should get Papa to buy me one.”

“Oh… Would you like some tea?” Chichi asked after a moment of silence and Deejay nodded enthusiastically then jumped slightly in surprise as the door behind her flew open.

“Nah-aahh!! I was _so_ winning until Gohan started helping you!” 

“But Gohan wasn’t anywhere _near_ you when I knocked you down…”

“…Because I was trying to get my hair out of my eyes. I think it’s time for another haircut.”

As Deejay watched, three young boys raced into the house and threw themselves onto various pieces of furniture around the small lounge and were followed inside by two older men. A split second later Chichi had marched passed Deejay and had he hands on her hips, glaring at the group.

“I just _cleaned_ in here this morning! _Out!_ I don’t want any of you in here until you’ve bathed and changed! _NOW_!”

“Sorry, Chichi.” One of the men, with spiky hair, rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and the herd of children chased each other back out of the house followed by one of the men who paused in the doorway and looked back at the spiky-haired man.

“Hurry up, Kakorotto.”

“In a minute. Hi!” the one called ‘Kakorotto’ presented his hand to Deejay and shook hers when she took it. She stared at his hand in amazement – it felt like he as being horribly gentle with her except that the grip was already tight. “I’m Gokou. That’s Vegeta,” he gestured back over his shoulder with his chin at the other man, who’d moved closer as the first man had moved, “And the kids were Gohan, Trunks and Goten; Oldest to youngest. Are you a friend of Chichi’s?”

“Ahhh… I… We just met an hour or so ago…” Vegeta had called the man Kakorotto, but he’d introduced himself as Gokou. Maybe ‘Kakorotto’ was a nickname?

“She helped me carry the groceries home.” Chichi said in irritation and moved back into the kitchen to put the kettle on.

“Oh! Thanks for that.” Gokou grinned and peered over Deejay’s head, into the kitchen. “What did you get?”

“Kakorotto!” 

“I was just… Oh alright. We should get the kids some clean clothes before we go back out though, so they’re not running naked through the house with a guest here.”

Deejay blinked as the two men disappeared through another doorway and then turned around and watched Chichi bustle around the kitchen. That had been quite strange, certainly an odd family. Three kids, two men and a woman, it didn’t really add up quite right. And why was Vegeta following Gokou so closely? Certainly both of them weren’t needed to get the kids some clean clothes. Deejay suddenly grinned. Two of them weren’t needed unless _of course_ , they wanted to be alone.

So _that_ was why Chichi had been sent off to town to get groceries without help. Obviously she was the family’s maid. Amazing! The three boys shared both the men’s features so they must have had some sort of third party implantation done so that the children were both of theirs. So romantic! “ _Wow_!”

Chichi paused as she took the kettle carefully off of the stove and set it on the bench, “Wow?”

“Yes! It’s great what’s going on here! What an amazing family! So romantic! You must be so proud!”

“I… Proud of them? I suppose so…” Chichi looked uncertain again and Deejay laughed.

“I guess that’s why you all live so far away from the city then, most people wouldn’t be very tolerant in the city and you get to be yourselves out here.”

“Well, yes we do. Err… How many sugars?”

Deejay grinned again, “Two, please. I’m so happy I met you today! It’s not often you come across this kind of thing. It’s so romantic when couples are _that_ devoted to each other. Wow. _Three_ kids!”

Chichi wasn’t exactly sure what Deejay was talking about, but she did catch the misapprehension at the end. “Oh no. Trunks is Vegeta’s son.”

“Oh! But he’s only a little older than Goten, isn’t he?” Deejay asked as Chichi handed her a cup of tea and they sat down at the table.

“Yes. Just a little over a year.”

Deejay frowned, “So Vegeta was playing around then?”

Chichi coughed as she took a sip of her tea and stared over at Deejay, “Well… Yes, I guess he was.”

“And after you all had obviously been together for so long too! Well I guess everything turned out alright, but still!”

Chichi was now completely lost and was about to get Deejay to explain herself when Gokou and Vegeta came back into the room. To Deejay, Vegeta looked highly irritated and cast Deejay a contemptuous look. _Looks like someone didn’t get any cause they have a guest_. Deejay smirked and then turned her back on them. _Serves him right for not being loyal_.

“We’re going out now Chichi. Bye… uhhh?”

“Deejay.” Deejay turned back around to cast Gokou a smile and ignored Vegeta. “Is it alright if I come around again some time? To see Chichi?”

Gokou blinked then shrugged. “That’s up to Chichi. Come on, Vegeta.”

Deejay grinned and turned back to Chichi, “Can I?”

“Of…of course. It would be nice to have someone else to talk too.”

“Great!” Deejay grinned and contentedly began to drink her tea.

## **

Yamucha woke up slowly, blinking to get the grit out of his eyes and then groaning as the pain in the back of his head made itself known.

Carefully he tried to move his shoulders to relieve the tension and a blinding pain shot down his arms to rest in his shoulders.

Ignoring the pain, Yamucha snapped his head upwards in shock. He was hanging from a wall by his wrists – why?

Slowly he looked around. A dungeon? _No way!_ What was a dungeon doing even _existing_ in this day-and-age?

Groaning, he put his feet under him and was relieved to note that he wasn’t being forced to simply hang from his wrists. He sucked in a pained breath as his hands began to sting from the renewal of blood flow.

Where was he? Where was Celli? And what had happened? The last thing he remembered was being in the park with Celli, then a sharp pain in the back of his neck.

Yamucha pulled on his chains to test their strength, then gave it up. He neglected his training too much in the past few years to break from the chains easily and he had a feeling they were designed so that he couldn’t break them anyway.

Back to square one. Where was he? The dungeon was completely uninteresting. Four stonewalls, one with a door, the rest with chains. The chains in the wall directly across from the door were holding Yamucha.

His eyes moved back from their search of the room to stare at the door as, from the other side, there was a crash as if something heavy was being moved out of the way, and then the door swung open.

“Ahhh, I see that you have finally awoken.” A tall man in loose purple and black clothing walked lightly into the room and the door closed itself behind him.

Yamucha narrowed his eyes as he stared at the man. He had a long blonde braid that he flipped absently over his shoulder as he stopped walking. His eyes were dark and in the dim dungeon’s light seemed to flick from cold silver to violet. Most importantly though, was that the entire left side of the man’s face was red, as if he’d spent to much time out in the sun… Or as if he’d been caught by surprise by a Ki blast and it was only half healed.

“Domino.” Yamucha growled before he could even think to stop himself and the blonde smiled faintly.

“I see that introductions are not required then. Either you are much more perceptive than you first appeared or your friends managed to describe my appearance quite accurately. I imagine it is the latter rather than the former.”

“ _Bastard!_ ” Yamucha ignored the mans condescending tone and pushed himself away from the wall, “What do you want? Where’s Celli!?”

Domino lifted an amused eyebrow, “Celli is quite safe – her mission was a success after all so I have no reason to harm her. And as to why you are here… I have need of a contact close to the Saiyan’s therefore I have decided to recruit you.”

Yamucha fell back against the wall. Celli…was a Servant? That was… That was _impossible_! He’d known her longer than Domino had been around. And the fool wanted Yamucha to work for him? Never! He’d _never_ betray Gokou!

“I’d _never_ do anything for you!” 

Domino looked mildly surprised. “I am sorry. I seem to have given you the impression that you have a choice in the matter.” He stepped forward, closing the gap between Yamucha and himself, and slipped his right hand up under Yamucha’s shirt, splaying his fingers across the mans lower back, “You do not.”

Yamucha tried to jerk away from the touch but he was trapped against the wall. Domino’s final words were drowned out as Yamucha’s head filled with a deafening roaring. He felt as if he were being crushed. His breathing quickly became short gasps as he tried to control the pain and he closed his eyes to concentrate. Then the world suddenly dropped out from beneath him and he was falling…

Domino’s lips twitched into a small smile of satisfaction and he stepped away from his victim, removing his hand.

“Stand up and name yourself,” he demanded quietly.

Yamucha hung limply in his bounds for a moment and then stood up and opened his eyes. In the dim light they seemed to flicker to violet for a moment and then they returned to normal. “My…name?”

Domino waited, pushing his long fringe out of his eyes.

“I am…Yamucha. Servant of Domino.”


	4. Four

#  **Chapter Four** :

 

“ _Aaahhhhhhhh_!!!!!”

Yamucha sat bolt upright, his eyes wide with horror and his hands clutching at the soft material he lay on as if it were a lifeline.

Soft, bright early-morning sunshine filtered in through the window opposite him and cast light patches across the floor and walls. The room, his bedroom, was silent; Yamucha’s own harsh breathing and the sounds of nature out his window were the only things to be heard. Nothing moved.

_Where…? What…?_ Yamucha stared around at his peaceful surroundings and struggled to get his breathing under control.  _A… Dream?_ But it had been so real. He could still feel Domino’s hand pressed against his lower back, could still feel the chains that had bound him biting into his wrists.

As he remembered, he jerked his arms up and stared at his wrists. No injuries, no marks, nothing. It _had_ only been a dream. _But it was so vivid. So…_

“Aaaahhhhh!!!” For the second time that morning, Yamucha yelled in surprise, this time jumping to his feet and staring across the room to his bedside table, at the phone. 

After a few seconds it rang again loudly and Yamucha realised that it’s ringing was what had woken him up in the first place. After the third ring he staggered across the room and grabbed it off the receiver and put it to his ear.

“Hello?” He ventured.

// “ _Yamucha_?!” // He recognised the worried voice on the other end immediately.

“Celli?”

// “Yamucha?! Where were you?! I was waiting half the night for you to pick me up! I was so worried!” //

“What? Pick you up…? Why would I…” He trailed off slowly. Of course! He was supposed to pick her up for their date last night, but instead of actually doing it, he’d passed out on his bed and had a warped nightmare about it instead. Guiltily he glanced down at his clothes and realised he must have fallen asleep partway through changing after he’d visited Krillin.

“Ahhh… Celli. I’m sorry, I… I think I fell asleep.”

// “ _What?!_ You went to _sleep_?! And left _me_ standing alone in the middle of town for _two_ _hours_!!?” //

“Celli, I’m _really_ sorry. It was an accident. I guess I was just to tired after I got home yesterday.”

// “Too _tired_?! You were too tired to come pick me up?!” // Celli’s voice was raising to dangerous level’s and Yamucha held the phone away from his ear.

“Celli… _Celli_ , I said I was sorry! I’ll make it up to you. _Really_!”

// “ _Really,_ really?” //

“Yes!”

// “Fine then! You can take me to lunch tomorrow. An _expensive_ lunch!” //

Yamucha stared at the phone in disbelief then realised the futility of resisting. “Okay, Celli. I’ll pick you up at eleven.”

// “Good. And _don’t_ forget!” //

“I won’t. See you then.”

// “Humph.” // Celli snorted and then hung up.

With a sigh, Yamucha hung up too and then nearly jumped out of his skin as it immediately began to ring again.

Yamucha picked it up again, “Err… Hello?”

// “Yamucha! Hey, it’s Krillin. Feeling up to a little travelling today? Gokou thought it might be a good idea to take a look around some of the smaller cities and see if we can find anything out about Domino. Well actually it was Vegeta who suggested it but Gokou thought it was a good idea and asked me to do it so I suppose it’s all right.” //

“Ahhh…” Yamucha blinked at the typical Krillin onslaught and then nodded, ignoring the fact that Krillin couldn’t see it, “Sure, Krillin. Just let me have a shower and change.”

// “Great! I’ll fly over to your place. That should give you enough time. Seeya!” // The line went dead.

Yamucha hung the phone up for the second time and waited a moment before crossing his bedroom and going into his bathroom.

After a quick shower, a change of clothes and, thankfully, something to eat, Yamucha was ready to go by the time Krillin arrived. And by the time they had set off on their ‘mission’ he had completely forgotten about the odd dream he’d had the night before. 

## **

“What do you mean ‘everywhere’?”

Gokou sat sprawled across one of Bulma’s couches, his feet up on a coffee table. Across from him, Krillin was perched uneasily on an armchair with a serious expression on his face.

“I took Yamucha and we went around all the cities within a days distance of here like you said, and people are going missing in all of them. Anyone who knew the missing people says that they began to act strangely before disappearing completely.”

“And you think Domino is the one doing it.” Gokou began to chew on his thumbnail and stared into space.

“It makes sense, Kakorotto.” Vegeta was leaning on the wall behind Gokou, his attention appearing to be wholly fixed on the view outside of the window beside him. “If he can use his little possession trick on such a large scale then he’s probably raising an army.”

“An army of innocents.” Gokou muttered sourly. _We can’t touch them. Innocents - he’ll get us all killed._

Gokou blinked slightly at the last and turned around on the couch slightly to look back at Vegeta. The man was glaring at him but turned back to stare out the window when Gokou turned.

“No I won’t, Vegeta.”

Vegeta’s head snapped back to glare venomously at Gokou. ~: _Stay. Out. Of. My._ Head!! : ~

Gokou’s eyes grew wide. His lips hadn’t moved. Gokou had clearly heard Vegeta speak, but the Saiyan’s lips hadn’t moved.

“Hey, earth to Gokou!” 

Gokou turned back on the couch and stared at Krillin who was watching the two Saiyan’s with an odd expression.

“What do you think we should do?” 

“Do?” Vegeta turned a contemptuous sneer in Krillin’s direction, “Well we’re certainly not going to get together with the bastard and bake cookies.”

Krillin countered Vegeta’s sneer with a venomous glare, “We can’t let Domino keep stealing all those people. We have to stop it.”

“Oh, so you know where he’s been hiding all this time? You know where he’s going to strike next? _Really_ Kakorotto, I think your ‘friends’ have been holding out on you.”

Krillin’s scowl deepened, “We can’t just sit around and do nothing! Who knows how his powers work. While we’re sitting around growing catatonic, Domino will turn the entire earth against us!”

“We don’t have a choice.” Gokou cut in sharply and Krillin stared at him in shock. “Krillin,” Gokou went on gently, “Vegeta’s right. We don’t know where he is, or where he’s going to be. I haven’t even felt his Ki since the fight and I _have_ been searching for it. Right now he doesn’t exist so all we can do is wait and see if he decides to show himself.”

“But…”

“Krillin.” Gokou leaned forward, putting his feet flat on the ground and resting his hands on his knees. “I _know_ how you feel, so does Vegeta. If we could think of a way to draw Domino out into the open, we would do it. All we can do is wait, watch and train as much as possible.”

Krillin slumped. “I guess you’re right. I just feel sorry for the people it’s happening too and who are losing family members. I sure wouldn’t want it happening to me…”

Gokou’s expression went from serious to playful in an instant. “Talking about families… How’s Juuhachi-gou?”

Krillin’s cheeks went red in a sudden blush and all previous arguing was forgotten, “She’s fine. Great even. She’s already two months along – but she’s not showing yet.”

Gokou grinned, “You’ll make a great Dad!”

Krillin blushed again and rubbed the back of his head. “Thanks, Gokou.” He stood. “Anyway, I better go. I have to get back home, Juuhachi-gou is expecting me back soon.”

Gokou waved as Krillin left the room and then flopped bonelessly back against the couch, his head tilted so he could see Vegeta out of the corner of his eye. “Your lips didn’t move.”

Vegeta pulled his eyes away from the window at Gokou’s words. “What?”

Gokou remained still, “Before, when you told me to stay out of your head, your lips didn’t move. You…” he paused, “You were thinking it?”

Vegeta lifted a sardonic eyebrow, “It took you long enough to figure it out.”

Gokou finally twisted around in his seat and, folding his arms over the back of it, met Vegeta’s eyes. “I’ve been in your mind? Hearing your thoughts?”

Vegeta didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow. ~: _Yes_. : ~

Gokou’s mouth fell open and he sat up straight. “Can… Can you hear _my_ thoughts?”

Vegeta shook his head, “No. As if I would want too.” He hesitated and then added grudgingly, “I can feel your emotions though.”

Vegeta looked as if the admittance was somehow worse than the ability itself.

Gokou was astounded, “That’s amazing! _This_ is amazing! Do you suppose the Bond is causing it? Think of the possibilities! We’ll work flawlessly together in battle!”

Vegeta looked like he’d far sooner carve out his heart with a rusty teaspoon.

“What will make you work flawlessly together in battle?” The voice came from the doorway.

Gokou twisted back around in his seat and grinned at Bulma, “He can feel my emotions and…”

~: _Moron! Be quiet!_ : ~

Gokou stopped, blinking in confusion at the command.

“You can feel each others emotions?” Bulma said slowly, as if tasting the idea. “It’s the Bond that’s causing it? Duh, of course it is. Fascinating, I wonder why…” she trailed off for a moment, staring into space; and then, suddenly, she stepped forward and slapped Gokou across the cheek as hard as she could.

“ _Bulma_!” Gokou protested, putting his hand to his stinging face, “What was _that_ for?!”

“I _thought_ so!” Bulma beamed at Gokou’s hurt expression for a moment, “Oh! I’m sorry, Gokou.” She was still grinning, “I wanted to test a theory.” She gestured at Vegeta who was absently rubbing his cheek.

“Vegeta felt that?”

Vegeta glared suddenly and yanked his hand away from his face, “What’s that supposed to prove, woman? He was so shocked that you’d dare hit him that of _course_ I’d feel it.”

“Exactly!” Bulma crowed, “And that’s why you were acting so strangely when Gokou got hit by Domino’s Ki-blast. You could feel Gokou’s pain trough his emotional response to it.”

Vegeta glared.

Gokou looked confused.

Bulma smirked and put her hands firmly on her hips. “I want to test this. It’s definitely a big clue to solving this Bond puzzle.”

Gokou suddenly looked suspicious, “Will there be any needles?”

“Oh Gokou, of course not!”

“This is ridiculous, woman!” It’s just another form of the Binding – like the distance limit. There is no point in testing it, even if you could.”

“What’s so ridiculous?” Bulma demanded, crossing her arms over her chest, “We tested the distance limit didn’t we? So we can test _this_!”

“No, stupid woman, you _can’t_. About all you could do is poke him,” Vegeta jerked his chin in Gokou’s direction, “to see if I felt it, which I wouldn’t unless he had some kind of emotional response to it. You can’t measure it.”

Bulma stared at Vegeta for a long moment, then dismissed him and looked at Gokou seriously, “I really need to research this, Gokou. I recall reading something that sounded like this a long time ago.”

“But Vegeta just said…”

“Oh, what does _he_ know.” Bulma waved her hand in Vegeta’s direction dismissively then turned and headed for the door. “I want to do some reading on it first, but don’t go anywhere. I’ll need you later.”

As the door slammed shut, Gokou turned and glared at Vegeta reproachfully, “That wasn’t a nice thing to think.”

Vegeta snorted and turned to stare out the window again.

“Really! She may seem bossy and arrogant at times, but she means well.”

“Be quiet, Kakorotto.”

“But…”

~: _Be quiet._ : ~

Gokou shut his mouth and glared at Vegeta who, after a few moments of uncomfortable silent, lifted his hand and rubbed at his eyes tiredly.

“You don’t need to pout about it.”

“I’m not pouting.” Gokou said, petulantly.

“You’re sulking.”

“Am not.”

Vegeta turned from the window and glare at Gokou, ready to speak.

“Why did you cut me off?” Gokou demanded, suddenly.

Vegeta’s glare deepened, “There is nothing that woman can find out that I haven’t already, and she has more important things to do.” Vegeta’s attention moved back out the window again, scanning the view. “And we don’t know who’s listening.”

“Listening? You mean someone might be spying on us?!”

“Domino can possess anybody.” Vegeta explained slowly, “When he possesses them he can give them enough power to be irritating, but they still have human power levels. We can’t tell a human from a Servant, unless they are attacking us. I couldn’t see anything in their Ki to distinguish them from normal people. Did you?”

Gokou blinked, “I… No, no I didn’t. I hadn’t thought of that.”

~: _Obviously._ : ~

“Don’t you think knowing would help Bulma find a way to break the Bond, though?”

“No.”

“But it might.”

“It wouldn’t.”

“How do you know?”

“It has no relevance.”

“But how do you _know_?”

“Kakorotto! Can _you_ see how it could possibly do anything more than inspire us to kill each other?”

“Vegeta!” Gokou protested. “It wouldn’t do that.”

Vegeta remained silent.

Gokou suddenly looked guilty, “I said I was sorry for snapping at you the other day. I really don’t know what came over me.”

“I said stay out of my head!” Vegeta said sharply.

“I’m sorry.”

There was a lengthy silence.

“So… Do you think this part of the Bond is a weapon against us?” Gokou ventured at length.

Vegeta shrugged, “We should treat it as such.”

“Can’t we…use it?”

“No, we _can’t_ use it!” Vegeta answered forcefully.

“But…” Gokou protested, his eyes wide.

Vegeta’s jaw tensed and he dug his fingers into his arm. “We will not use it,” he was trying to keep his voice level, “because it’s such a _convenient_ ability that Domino most likely set it into us himself. I will _not_ get used to using it to the point where we _need_ it to fight and find out that Domino can read it, and us, perfectly.”

“Oh.”

Silence.

“So… What should we do while Bulma…”

“We should leave. It’s pointless to be here.”

“Bulma said to stay.”

“We need to train!”

“This is important too.”

Vegeta set his jaw and glared out the window. _Everything_ was important to that third class moron!

“Waiting for Bulma won’t kill us, Vegeta.” Gokou said.

Vegeta grunted.

## **

“She could have told us she didn’t need us,” Vegeta growled under his breath later that day as he and Gokou flew back towards Gokou’s home, “instead of making us waste time we could have been using to train!”

“She didn’t do it on purpose, Vegeta.” Gokou said and slowed to fly level with the other man, “She just got busy.”

Vegeta grunted.

“So, we can train now.” Gokou went on cheerfully and then frowned, “If you want too. I mean; it is getting late.”

Vegeta stopped flying abruptly and glared at Gokou, “We’ll train here. Now.”

“Here?”

Vegeta nodded shortly. The area was relatively empty of human habitation, open enough to provide ease of movement but closed off enough to add some challenge. Not as good as his gravity chamber – but it would do.

The two men dropped out of the sky, landing lightly in a roughly circular patch of grass surrounded by sporadic boulders.

“Are you sure…?” Gokou began hesitantly, “I mean we really should tell Chichi we’re going to be late.”

“That woman is _not_ your keeper, Kakorotto!” Vegeta growled, “You don’t need to tell her where you’re going to be every moment of the day.”

“Yeah…” Gokou ran his hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his head, “But she worries a lot and I really don’t want to upset her…”

“She has nothing to worry about! You are Saiyan; you shouldn’t concern yourself with the frivolous feelings of earthlings.”

“But _I’m_ an earthling!”

Vegeta snarled. How easily Kakorotto threw off his Saiyan heritage! Did the man have no pride in his own race? No sense of respect for those who had come before him – his ancestors? How could he just blithely disassociate himself from all the history that had conspired to create him? And how, _how_ could he turn his back on it to declare himself a _human_?

“Ve…Vegeta?” 

Vegeta could feel the uncertainty that was suddenly coursing through the other man. _How_ could he keep that man out of his head? Glaring, he pushed Kakorotto’s emotions into the farthest parts of his brain to ignore and dropped into a fighting stance, “Shut _up_ , Kakorotto.”

“R…right.”

## **

It was pitch black out, but Vegeta wasn’t letting them stop. ‘ _It’s never to late for training, an enemy won’t stop fighting just because it gets dark_ .’ Gokou recalled Vegeta once saying, and he agreed…except he was getting really hungry now. And he felt like he’d been hit by a truck. Repeatedly. 

Dropping his fighting stance, Gokou gave Vegeta his best ‘ _I’m hungry and I want to go home_ ’ look. “Vege~~ta!”

“ _Stop_ whining, Kakorotto!”

“But Vege~~ta, I’m _really_ hungry.” 

“Yes. You’re always hungry.”

Raising his arms quickly, Gokou blocked a flurry of punches that were nowhere near as powerful as they had been a few hours before hand. _So he’s tired too, he just refuses to admit it and give up for the night._

“Aren’t you hungry too? I bet Chichi has dinner waiting for us.”

Vegeta growled. ~: _Can’t he think of anything other than his dependence on that_ earthling _?!_ : ~

Gokou blurted a response before even thinking, “I’m not dependent on Chichi! Ahhh… Sorry. I didn’t mean to listen… I mean I know I heard but… It was just there…I…”

“Fine!” Vegeta snapped abruptly, cutting Gokou off. “I don’t care. If you want to stop then let’s just go back.”

“Ahhh… yeah. Yeah! But uhmm… I’m not dependant on Chichi.” 

## **

“Isn’t it getting late? Shouldn’t they be home soon?” Deejay was anxiously leaning on the kitchen counter, her worried eyes pinned to Chichi’s expressionless face.

“They’ll come home when they feel like it, I’m _sure_!” The woman snapped and slammed the ladle she’d been using to stir a pot of soup down next to the sink.

“But Chichi…”

“We’ll eat without them.” Chichi stated flatly and began pulling plates out of the cupboards. “Could you fetch Gohan and Goten for me, please.”

Gohan and Goten; but no Trunks. Deejay had been burning to ask about that all afternoon, but she couldn’t bring herself to. She guessed that the boy was with his mother, so it really would be impolite to ask.

Nodding to herself, Deejay walked the short distance to the hallway and peered around the frame of the single open doorway, where Gohan and Goten were studying.

“Hey, guys?”

Goten looked up, blinking at her.

“Chichi said to come for dinner.”

“Alright! _Food_!” Goten leapt up excitedly and had raced past Deejay and down the hallway before his pencil had even hit the desk.

Gohan got up a little more leisurely.

“Exuberant.” Deejay commented to the 14-year-old and he offered her a half smile.

“It’s a family trait. Mum says Goten is just like dad was at the same age.”

Deejay stopped walking, her pausing leaving her in the kitchen doorway. “Mother?” she asked, confused.

Gohan nodded and gestured to Chichi before seating himself next to Goten at the table.

Deejay blinked, “Chichi is your _mother_?!”

Now both Gohan and Chichi were staring at their guest in confused shock. Goten however was focused on the bowl of rice Chichi held an inch above the tabletop.

“Well _of course_ I’m his mother.” Chichi said after a moment, “Goten’s too.” She added.

“But…but I thought…” A thought occurred to her, “Were you a surrogate?”

Chichi bristled, “I most certainly was _not_! Where did you get such a silly idea from?”

“Well I…I mean I… I just thought… ‘Cause, Gokou and Vegeta…” she stared at the two confused faces, “Hold on! So which one is your dad? Gokou, or Vegeta?”

“Well Gokou, of _course_.” Chichi said, finally putting the bowl of rice down on the table, “I’m surprised Vegeta even has a child, the way he acts. Whatever possessed Bulma, I’ll _never_ know.”

“Oh…”

Chichi continued serving up food but Gohan was still staring.

“What made you think dad _and_ Vegeta were our parents?”

Deejay blushed; “Well they seem really close, to me…” she trailed off at the look on Gohan’s face.

“They seem close? You mean they hang around each other a lot, right?”

Deejay suddenly realised she was still standing in the doorway, and walked the rest of the way into the room slowly and took a seat at the table, biting her lip as she thought.

“No… No, it’s more than that. They compliment each other. Like they’re part of each other. Like lovers.”

A cup suddenly slammed down in front of her and Deejay jumped.

“Well that’s completely ridiculous. They’re both men to begin with. And not only is my Gokou, _my_ husband, but he and Vegeta are also long time rivals.” Chichi’s tone set the conversation as closed and in a lighter pitch she added, “Could you help me with this soup, please?”

Deejay blushed miserably and leapt to her feet to help the woman dish out dinner. Still – if they were long time rivals, why were they always together?

## **

They were walking.

Walking at a leisurely pace up a grass and brush covered hill while Kakorotto gawked up at the night’s sky like a four-year-old earthling brat.

The moron had already tripped up twice from not paying attention to where he put his feet, and Vegeta could feel the wonderment at what the man was watching tingle through him. It spread under his skin like a pervasive itch, spreading outwards along his arms and to his fingers – it was all he could do to stop himself from ripping his arms off in an attempt to make it stop.

Vegeta was chaffing at the bit. If they were going back to Kakorotto’s house then why couldn’t they simply hurry up and _get_ there?

But no. Kakorotto wanted to _walk_ up Mt Paozu, stare up at the night’s sky, and do his best impression of a guppy-fish.

A light breeze picked up and ruffled Vegeta’s hair then passed him to send the nearby trees to swaying.

“If you’re quite finished, could we hurry _up_!?” he snapped finally and the other man jumped slightly.

“What? Oh, sorry. I hadn’t realised I’d stopped walking…” Gokou trailed off, then took a long, deep breath; breathing in the scents that made him love this place he had grown up in. “Isn’t it gorgeous?”

Vegeta snorted, “Foliage. Dirt. Wind. Can we go now?!”

Gokou blinked and stared at the other man who was glaring up the hillside, his posture stiff and his arms crossed over his chest.

“You don’t like being outside?”

“I like being outside just fine…”

Gokou was suddenly assaulted by smells, textures, feelings.

A warm, light breeze that felt fresh, as if blowing in from over some vast lake. Something soft and plush under his fingers that was obviously grass but was somehow more velvety to touch than he knew grass should be. The light breeze wrapped around him again, nestling him in a cocoon of warmth and smells that seemed familiar, yet not.

Sight. The nighttime visage of Mt Paozu faded around him and he was amerced in sunshine – so _much_ sunshine! It washed over him, drenched him in its light, its brightness.

It blinded him briefly – but then he could see. The sky. Bathed in brightness, it was red and orange – scattered about were fluffy white clouds that did nothing to disguise from him the fact that this place had _two_ suns.

“…but I detest standing around dithering pointlessly!”

Gokou blinked, and as suddenly as it had gripped him, the vision was gone.

He let out an explosive breath he hadn’t realised had caught in his throat and waited for his eyes to readjust to the darkness around him. Somehow the night seemed suddenly cold, the light breeze causing more chill than it should have been.

“Was that…” he hesitated, then ploughed onwards, “Was that, Planet Vegeta?”

Vegeta froze. His entire being seeming to become completely immobile. “What?”

“That place, that planet with two suns. Was it… was it Vegeta-sei?”

“I thought I told you to stay out of my head.” Vegeta’s voice sounded thin, as if he were speaking from a great distance, his form still completely still.

Gokou didn’t notice; his eyes closed as he tried to capture the image again. “The plants looked a little like the ones we saw on Namek, but not the same. I guess there wasn’t as much water as Namek had. And two suns…the sunsets there must have been amazing. It was beautiful…”

“Yes.”

Gokou’s eyes snapped open at the faint sound from Vegeta. The man was staring up the hillside still, his face completely in shadow so Gokou couldn’t see his expression. Gokou didn’t need to see it though, to guess what it was. Vegeta’s voice had sounded so lost all-of-a-sudden. Lost, alone and homesick.

“Vegeta…”

The Prince was silent and Gokou thought maybe he hadn’t been heard, and then Vegeta shrugged. “Let’s go!”

Gokou caught the man’s arm before he’d managed to take more than a few steps and Vegeta hissed, trying to snatch his arm away. Gokou held on tighter.

“I’m sorry, you know; about Vegeta-sei. I wish I could have seen it…”

“Seen it?!” Vegeta shot a dark glare over his shoulder at his rival and sneered, something inside him he’d kept bottled up for far too long flaring to life. “Yes, that’s typical of you, Kakorotto. You were born there. Your ancestors were born there. Your entire damned _race_ existed there striving for survival, for life, for valor and _you_ wish you could have _seen_ it!” he wrenched his arm out of Gokou’s grip and his hands balled into fists. “How can you be sorry for the loss of my Planet? How could you _possibly_ be sorry?! No matter how much you wish you _could_ have seen it; you _never saw it_! You ignore your people, your heritage, yet you flagrantly display the power it gave you with not a single _thought_ to where it came from!”

Vegeta realised he’d been slowly advancing on the other man and stopped himself, reining in his anger. “Don’t tell me you’re _sorry_ , Kakorotto. Don’t tell me you wish you could have seen my Planet. They are empty words. You are not Sayian, you have no right to them.” He whispered quietly.

“Ve…Vegeta… But I _am_ sorry. I… Vegeta!” Hurrying after the other man, Gokou grabbed onto his arm again, ignoring the stinging slap Vegeta immediately dealt to his hand in an effort to get him to let go, and pulled him around so they were face-to-face. “Vegeta…”

Gokou trailed off at the look in the other mans eyes. There was anger, yes, but not as much as he had been expecting. More so there was pain. Hurt, loneliness and betrayal. A combination Gokou had never thought to see in the eyes of the proud prince of all Saiyan's. It had never occurred to Gokou that Vegeta was anything other than the prideful, arrogant man he always projected himself to be. There had never been any slips in his careful mask of sneering contempt, prideful arrogance. Always he was the Saiyan Prince, showing nothing but hate and frustration.

But there it was. Before him, Vegeta was showing emotions he’d never even hinted at. Not because he wanted too, not willingly, but from having bottled up so much of what frustrated and galled him. For having to suffer daily through what he viewed as brazen disrespect. And it was all Gokou’s fault.

Vegeta’s eyes were wide with the emotion that swirled within them. This emotion, this _pain_ was Gokou’s fault. Gokou had caused it all.

What could he say? What could he _possibly_ say to ease the hurt he saw, that he had inflicted? Gokou’s own thoughts began to swirl around in turmoil as he gazed into the black depths of Vegeta’s eyes. They pulled him in, begged him to say anything, _everything_ to make it better, to heal the wounds he’d unwittingly inflicted. The eyes pulled him in further and he’d barely registered he was leaning forward before his lips encountered Vegeta’s in a firm, startling kiss.

Warmth. Warmth spread through him from where his lips touched against Vegeta’s and he dimly felt the tell-tale tingle that always seemed to accompany any kind of touching between the two men. The warmth permeated his body, sending the tingling sensation along every vein, into every limb. Everything felt so right suddenly; as if he’d unexpectedly, and gloriously, found a piece of himself that had been missing for a long, long time.

Then suddenly that warmth was gone. Chill air streamed into the spot where a warm body had been a moment before and then abruptly there was pain.

Blinking in confusion, Gokou pushed himself up from where he was suddenly sprawled on the ground and lifted a hand to his bleeding lip. Slowly his eyes lifted to Vegeta; the man was beside himself with rage.

Taking deep breaths, Vegeta pulled himself together enough to grate out a single sentence through gritted teeth, “What the _hell_ do you think you’re doing?!”


	5. Five

#  _**Chapter Five**_ :

 

Three days.

It had been three days since Vegeta had last spoken to Gokou, and that had been his shocked, rage filled demand that the Earth raised Saiyan explain himself.

Gokou had tried to explain, he really had; but even he didn’t know why he’d done it. It had happened before he’d really registered what he was doing and the only excuse he’d managed to come up with was that it had ‘felt right’.

Vegeta hadn’t even bothered to listen to him after Gokou had blurted that out, and now he was left with enough confusion and tension to last a lifetime.

He’d tried to apologise, but all that had earned him was stony silence. Actually, in the last three days, all anybody had earned by attempting to talk to the man was silence – Vegeta was refusing to speak to anybody. But at least he was acknowledging them. Anytime Gokou tried to get the prince’s attention he was ignored – even when he stepped directly in front of the smaller man, Vegeta’s gaze went straight through him.

Three days; and for some unknown reason he was being the fool and trying again.

“Veg _eta_! How many times do I have to say I’m _sorry_?!”

Silence. Vegeta was sitting, leaning against a large rock, apparently completely engrossed in a book. He’d been this way all morning, just sitting and reading.

What was he reading anyway? The cover of the book was plan black, with no pictures or writing, and really, Gokou could count on one hand how many times he’d seen Vegeta doing something so…peaceful.

The Prince’s face was serene as his eyes moved over the words he was reading; giving no indication that he had even heard Gokou’s plea, much less given Gokou a clue to what he was reading about.

A thought struck Gokou with sudden clarity. Maybe he was being too passive. So far all he’d done was talk, plead with the other man to respond, sometimes deliberately standing in his way, but Vegeta had obviously perfected his ability to tune Gokou’s voice out and it was only a few extra steps to walk around him.

Gokou made his decision. Three days of being shunned was too much; he’d get Vegeta’s attention. Now.

Taking a fortifying breath, Gokou leaned forward, resting a hand against the soft grass below him for balance, and neatly plucked the book out of Vegeta’s hands. Vegeta’s head snapped up and Gokou was instantly pinned in place.

## **

He could still feel it.

When Kakorotto’s lips had brushed over his it had sent a sensation close to liquid fire coursing through Vegeta’s veins; and it was still there.

For the past three days, Vegeta had maintained his staunch, stony, _angry_ silence and suffered through that moron’s constantly regretful, anxious and overall pathetic looks.

And every one of these looks reminded Vegeta of warm lips planting themselves over his, sending those same tingling fires running through his limbs again, warming him and mocking him.

Yet more pointless emotions that that _moron_ had made him endure. It was one more sensation he knew he had never wanted to feel, especially around, and _because_ of _him_.

Vegeta hated him. Hated him so much it hurt.

Kakorotto was staring at him again, his sad eyes boring straight through Vegeta as he begged for forgiveness. Again.

How long would Vegeta have to suffer the man’s irritating whinging before he figured out that Vegeta wasn’t going to talk to him?

“Veg _eta_! How long do I have to keep saying I’m _sorry_?!”

Vegeta kept his eyes on his book.

Kakorotto was determined to take everything from Vegeta that he valued. Already the earth raised Saiyan had taken Vegeta’s life, his pride and now he was attempting to take his self-respect. Vegeta wouldn’t allow it! He had little enough left to him now.

He would tolerate Kakorotto’s presence because he had no choice – but he’d be damned if he was going to forgive the man.

Vegeta finished taking in the page he was reading and lifted his hand in preparation of turning to the next, and the book suddenly disappeared from his grasp.

Instantly, Vegeta’s gaze snapped upwards and he glared daggers at the man holding the stolen article.

## **

Gokou gulped, but kept a firm grip on the book.

“Vegeta,” his voice only quavered slightly as he took in the purely venomous look directed at him, “we need to talk. You can’t keep ignoring me!”

Vegeta stayed silent, his eyes not wavering so much as an inch from their glare. Gokou took it as a good sign – at least the man was listening. Now was the time for him to say something amazingly dazzling that would make Vegeta instantly forgive him so they could put this entire mess behind them.

His mind went blank.

“I…ahhh… I mean… Well… You…” He was stuttering. Vegeta’s glare was unnerving and Gokou had never been any good at intentionally coming up with good dialogue to begin with. “I really think… Ahhh…”

Gokou jerked back suddenly as Vegeta leaned forward, a hand coming forward to support his weight; almost making him seem like he was prowling, his eyes never stopping their connection with Gokou’s, and yanked the book out of his hand.

Gokou couldn’t believe it. Vegeta was going to take his book back and keep reading – as if Gokou had never made his attempt to talk at all.

Acting on sudden impulse, Gokou snatched the book back before Vegeta had gotten a good hold on it and stood up.

“Would you _stop_ that?!” Gokou demanded and ignored Vegeta’s rage filled gaze, “I’m aware that I did something stupid, Vegeta, but you can’t snub me forever. I… I’m sorry; you _know_ I’m sorry. Can’t you just forgive me?”

Vegeta remained silent, his gaze never wavering. Gokou sighed and said the one thing he knew would get the other Saiyan’s attention.

“We can’t fight Domino like this.”

Vegeta growled. The noise was deep in his throat and Gokou felt it more than heard it. He pushed his advantage.

“Maybe if he hadn’t put this Bond on us we could have worked separately to defeat him, but since the bond _is_ there we _have_ to work together, or we’re both as good as dead. So can’t you just accept my apology and then we can forget it ever happened and carry on like normal.”

Vegeta had ceased growling as Gokou spoke and now his gaze was carefully blank. Slowly he rose to his feet and faced the Earth raised Sayian squarely.

“As much as I hate to admit it, Kakorotto,” he said slowly, “You’re right.”

Vegeta’s eyebrow twitched slightly and then Gokou found himself, for the second time in three days, staring up at Vegeta from the vantage point of being punched to the ground.

“You’re forgiven.” Vegeta muttered and then stooped and picked up his book from where Gokou had dropped it as he fell and sat back against his rock and resumed reading.

Blinking up at the sky, Gokou watched a scattering of clouds pass over him and lifted his hand up to his face to check that nothing was broken. Another bruise to add too his collection – but at least he was forgiven.

## **

“It’s suspicious.” Yamucha declared flatly and glared from Krillin, to Bulma, and back again. “You can’t say it isn’t.”

“Yamucha!” Bulma meet the man’s glare with one of her own, “They’re just stressed. How would you be acting if it were _you_ bound to your greatest rival by the Eternal Dragon?”

Yamucha blinked and then shrugged, dismissing the question, “They were acting just fine until a few days ago. You yourself said they were acting fine when they left capsule corp. But Chichi says they were acting strange when they got home. Got home _hours_ later than they should have been – with a flimsy excuse about what they were doing, too!”

“Flimsy?” Bulma stared at Yamucha incredulously, “What’s so flimsy about training?! They’re _always_ training!”

Yamucha smirked and leaned forward slightly, “But Gokou always _tells_ Chichi when he’s going to be out late training and this time he didn’t; Chichi didn’t know where they were, that friend of hers, Deejay, told me when I was over there talking to Chichi yesterday.”

“Well…” Bulma had to concede that particular point. Chichi always had been very meticulous about keeping tabs on her family any time she had the chance.

“See!” Yamucha exclaimed again. “I tell you it’s suspicious!”

“What is?”

Yamucha froze in place, his finger raised slightly and his back to the door that Gokou and Vegeta had just entered through and then turned around slowly.

“Oh… nothing really. Just…” he avoided Vegeta’s piercing glare, “just something Krillin and I have been watching on TV the last couple of days…”

 “Oh.” Gokou approached the subject enthusiastically, “Is it any good? What’s it abou…?”

“Kakorotto!” Everyone in the room jumped as Vegeta snapped out the word. “We don’t have time to mess around _chatting_.”

Gokou rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, “Sorry.”

“Vegeta!” Bulma was the first of the other three to finally get her mouth working, “You…spoke.”

Vegeta’s glare snapped to the woman, “Of course I spoke, stupid woman! Now did you want to see us today, or not?!”

Bulma’s expression changed instantly, going from mild irritation to grinning in an instant.

“That’s right! Follow me!”

She didn’t even look behind her; simply assumed the two Saiyan’s would follow her. They did.

After a moment, Krillin slowly stood from where he’d been sitting on the couch and moved to stand next to Yamucha, staring at the empty doorway.

“I guess they made up…?” he ventured finally.

Yamucha smiled faintly to himself and looked at Krillin out of the corner of his eye. “Suspicious.”

Krillin hesitated, then nodded firmly. “Suspicious.” He agreed.

## **

The air on Mt Paozu was fresh and it swept briskly around the mountain, lightly bestowing a ruffling caress on grass, flowers, tree branches and hair alike as it passed.

Far from the small home of the Son family, boxed in by the expanse of a great forest and a single cliff face that soared upwards so far it nearly touched clouds, three demi-saiyan’s were deep in a heated battle.

To the untrained observer it looked nothing so much as a furious tangle of limbs diving around the small space provided – sometimes arching upwards into the sky, other times nearly diving straight into the deep forest.

To a trained observer, however, it was a fairly relaxed battle that a certain tall, gangly 14-year-old was steadily losing to two giggling children.

The one watching was a trained observer.

He sat motionless and silent high above the battle, hidden from view behind an outcropping of rock that protruded from the side of the cliff face. Occasionally a breath of wind swirled into the cubby and lifted the few strands of hair that wasn’t caught up in the long, thick braid that snaked down the watchers back to curl on the stone floor and fluttered it around. It went unnoticed.

“If you two don’t stop ganging up on me,” the 14-year-olds threat floated upwards on the wind to the small cubby where the watcher sat, “I’m going to go Super!”

“Can we?!” Son Goten came abruptly to a stop in mid-air and then landed on a rock that jutted up roughly from the ground, and grinned hopefully.

“We’re not supposed too.” Trunks warned and floated over to where Goten had stopped, obviously taking the conversation as a signal to rest, “Weren’t we told to be careful while training around here, cause of the birds, or something?”

“Oh. Yeah.” Goten looked crestfallen as the warning came back to him.

“It should be okay if we don’t power up, or use any Ki-blasts.” Gohan said slowly, and Goten perked up again, “And stay away from the cliffs and forest.” 

“ _Yes_!” Goten leapt into the air with a joyful yell and instantly his eyes, and hair, took on the blue and blonde colourings that signified the Super Saiyan change. 

An instant later the other two had done the same.

Above them, their watcher’s lips twitched up into a slight smile that disappeared almost instantly. Quickly his head jerked up and his focus changed from the insignificant fighting of the demi-Saiyan's to a more immediate danger.

The children’s fathers were approaching.

The watcher’s expression grew calculating for an instant before he vaguely shook his head and rose to his feet. The children, he decided, were to wrapped up in their play battle to notice him lurking in the shadows, the adults, however, would be guaranteed to sense him within moments if he remained nearby – no matter _how_ skilfully he concealed his ‘Ki’.

With one eye on the approach of the two Bound Saiyan’s, the watcher exited his brief shelter and, blonde braid rippling out behind him, he flew upwards at lightning speed, his curiously coloured lavender eyes catching briefly in the sunlight before he disappeared amongst the surrounding clouds.

## **

“Did you feel that?” Kakorotto broke into Vegeta’s thoughts, instantly scattering the intense silence that had been between the two men as they flew towards where their children were training, and lifted his hand to shade his eyes from the sun so he could peer into the distance.

“Feel _what_?” Vegeta replied, grudgingly.

“It felt like someone’s power spiking and then dissap…” He broke off suddenly as the unmistakable figure of a miniature Super Saiyan streaked upwards ahead of them, disappearing into the clouds and then, barely a breath later, dropped straight downwards, gaining speed on their descent.

Vegeta suddenly felt himself suffused with anger. He had told those boys’ – explained to them patiently - that if they wanted to train in this area they had to keep their ‘Ki’ levels _low_.

A split second after the emotions had hit him, Vegeta was speeding faster towards where the boys’ were training and had appeared amongst them before they even knew he had arrived. A swift clout around the ear sent Trunks quickly to the ground to land in a puff of dust and he was joined a few moments later as Goten and Gohan joined him without prompting.

The telltale gold dropped from both boys’ auras and hair as they touched to the ground, and Trunks’ disappeared as he climbed sulkily to his feet.

“What on _Earth_ do you three think you’re _doing_?!”

Gohan opened his mouth to reply but was ignored.

“What did I say about going Super Saiyan around here? Gohan! I explained to you exactly why you shouldn’t so you’d keep the other two in line, instead I find you doing it with them!”

Gohan was now staring fixedly at his feet. “I know. But…but I didn’t think…”

“Well _that’s_ obvious.” Vegeta cut in to the conversation, and he suddenly felt fire shoot up his arm as Kakorotto touched the bare skin there.

  “Stay out of this, Vegeta.” Kakorotto withdrew his hand and pinned his gaze back on the children and resumed his unexpected lecture. “I explained to all three of you, so you know full well that the birds in this area are nesting right now. Any, _any_ disruption in the energy currents here could put them off their nesting. Especially Super Saiyan energy!  Do any of you want to be responsible for wiping out the entire bird population in this area?”

Kakorotto paused, obviously expecting an answer this time and was met by three barely audible negatives.

Suddenly the anger that had been coursing so hotly through Vegeta’s veins disappeared. Draining out of him as if it had never been there.

He glanced sharply at Kakorotto, his eyes narrowing slightly as he realised suddenly what had happened now that he could think straight again. The other Saiyan had been projecting his emotions so strongly this time that Vegeta hadn’t been able to block them out. His growl of anger, so low in his throat that it was felt more than heard, was drowned out as Kakorotto, his voice now lacking the edge it had had earlier, began to speak again.

“This area is off limits from now on.” He said, arms crossed over his chest, “Now, all three of you. Home!”

Vegeta’s scowl deepened. “They defy you like this and you send them _home_ , Kakorotto.”

In a split second Kakorotto’s irritation was back again, this time directed at Vegeta. “I said to stay out of this, Vegeta.”

“And stand by while you give them a light slap on the fingers for being naughty? They aren’t pathetic Earth children, Kakorotto – they can handle more punishment for their actions than that.”

“I think it’s enough…” Gokou began.

“You would. At least that human wench of yours…”

Kakorotto’s irritation spiked, becoming anger that he somehow managed not to show on his face. “Fine.” The man’s voice was tightly controlled. “Gohan, when you get home _tell_ Chichi why you’re there. And tell her Vegeta and I will be training for the rest of the evening.” He paused then barked out, “Now go _home_!”

All three children jumped slightly at the command and then Trunks and Goten were in the air, streaking off towards the Son family home. But instead of following instantly, Gohan hesitated, his gaze on his father who had already turned away and was examining the area carefully.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think it’d be that bad if we kept our power in check.”

Kakorotto didn’t respond and after a moment Gohan’s gaze moved to Vegeta, his expression unreadable as his eyes looked at the shorter Saiyan’s arm, where Kakorotto had touched him.

With a guilty start, Vegeta snatched his hand away from where he’d been unconsciously rubbing at the spot and glared at Gohan angrily. After a moment the boy’s lips tightened and then he was in the air and gone.

Vegeta glared after the boy till he was out of sight, then sucked in a lungful of air and let it out slowly, attempting to completely block out the emotions coming from the other man. “Stop projecting, Idiot!”

Kakorotto’s eyes snapped to him and Vegeta suddenly felt like he was drowning in a mixture of irritation, anger and, after a moment, apology. Then it cut off as Kakorotto finally got everything he was feeling under control.

“Sorry.” He said shortly and then turned back to his survey of their surroundings, muttering to himself. “We must have got here on time, the energies around here don’t seem to be disturbed that badly.”

“They’re just _birds_ , Kakorotto.” Again the gaze was on him.

Kakorotto remained silent for a moment and then, not for the first time since they’d known each other, but certainly in a way Vegeta never expected, Kakorotto completely surprised him, “They’re necessary to the ecology around here. This particular area of the mountain has one breed that is nearly extinct and you’ll only find them on the mountain. This particular patch of forest also happens to be their breeding grounds, and they don’t nest anywhere else.” He paused, “And I like them. They’re cute, and they sound really nice early in the morning.”

Vegeta blinked and suddenly all the tension seemed to drain out of the taller Saiyan and he grinned, running his fingers through the hair at the back of his head.

“The Mountain is my home, I like to keep it running smoothly if I can. Chichi says it’s silly and that nature will take care of itself but I like to be able to nudge it in the right direction now and then. This place is to beautiful to leave anything up to chance.” Kakorotto grinned for a moment longer, then let his hand drop back to his side and looked away, his expression disappointed. “But you don’t really care about that. I guess we should find somewhere to train, right? Wasn’t there a good place about ten minutes south of here?”

Vegeta blinked again. Kakorotto’s emotions were being a complete roller coaster and the Prince was warring with himself over it. Should he still be angry over what had happened three days ago, and over the forced reconciliation this morning? Should he be irritated over Kakorotto’s complete lack of control on his emotions that day? Or should he be worried about what could cause the normally preternaturally happy Saiyan’s emotions to be fluctuating so badly in the first place?  

“…Vegeta?”

Vegeta abruptly jerked his hand away from where he was once again rubbing at his arm and scowled at the other man. “Do you need to check on your birds first?”

“What? I thought you said you wanted to get to training as quickly as possible today.”

Vegeta’s scowl deepened and his eyes glittered dangerously, “You won’t have your mind properly on fighting if you’re worrying about the silly creatures. So do you need to check them or not?!”

Kakorotto continued to stare at him blankly for a moment, then he smiled lightly and for some reason Vegeta suddenly felt like his heart had become ten times bigger and was trying to beat it’s way up his throat.

“Yes.” Kakorotto’s smile got wider, “Thank you.”

Vegeta’s only response was a growl.

## **

He’d been thinking about it since the kiss.

Well…not really since the kiss, but the argument before it.

Okay, it hadn’t really been an argument – Gokou hadn’t said much – but Vegeta had said a lot and had, overall, made Gokou feel like he should be doing something to fix it.

So he’d been thinking about it. Hard.

Vegeta hadn’t made it easy to think on it though. First there was the situation with the accidental kiss – then the tension of the days afterwards – but now that had all been taken care of (if not exactly the way Gokou would have chosen) he could concentrate on the problem. It was beginning to worry him just a little bit.

Point one: Vegeta was a Saiyan, and proud of it.

Point two: Gokou was Saiyan, but he’d been raised on Earth so being Saiyan didn’t mean all that much to him.

Point three: Vegeta took Gokou’s disregard as a personal insult.

Point four: Gokou, for all his disregard, was more powerful than, and had proceeded further along the paths of the Saiyan legends, than Vegeta had, if only barely.

Point five: Vegeta also regarded this as a personal insult.

Gokou propped his chin in his hand and starred fixedly at the wall across from where he sat. The room was dark, the only light being the stars that were shining faintly through the lounge window, and a small lamp Vegeta was using to do whatever it was he was doing somewhere behind him, but it didn’t really matter that he couldn’t see the wall too well.

The only conclusion he had been able to come too was that Vegeta took far to many of Gokou’s actions personally, and obsessively watching him for any and all ‘non-Saiyan’ traits so that he could scowl at them seemed to have become the other man’s hobby.

Gokou frowned and his eyes narrowed. Really, Vegeta needed to lighten up. Just because he and Vegeta were the only full-blooded Saiyan’s left didn’t mean he had to watch Gokou so closely.

Or maybe he did.

Gokou backtracked the thought. He didn’t really mind so much that he was one of the last two survivors of a race but, like Vegeta had pointed out, Gokou didn’t know the race, had never been to the planet (except for when he’d been born) and didn’t really, deep down, think of himself as Saiyan.

But what if he were in Vegeta’s shoes? How would he feel if he were the last person from the Earth left alive? What if Cell had triumphed and the entire human race, along with the planet, had been obliterated and he was alone – and then one day, he found an Earthling who didn’t care about the Earth, or the fact that it, and the people from it, was gone? 

Gokou shivered, and one hand balled up tightly against his thigh.

He couldn’t stand that, wouldn’t stand for it. The human race was, at heart, a honourable one, filled with potential. To have it all disappear and no one even care…

He suddenly felt guilty. Was that what Vegeta felt? Anger at the loss? Despair as, everyday, he watched the last vestiges of his history, his people, disappear forever? If so, then Gokou really was the soul source of Vegeta’s anger and frustration. He was the one that slowly, day-by-day, made Vegeta witness is race’s complete destruction.

Gokou’s eyes were wide with his thoughts. He couldn’t fix that. He couldn’t bring back an entire race – not even with the Dragonball's. All he could do… All he could do was stop aggravating the other man – but that would mean he’d have to be Saiyan and he didn’t really _want_ to be Saiyan, he was happy being an Earthling and always would be.

Maybe though…maybe he could compromise.

“You’re going to burn a hole in the wall if you stare at it any harder, Kakorotto.”

Gokou’s head snapped around in startlement to stare at Vegeta blankly, then he blinked. Vegeta had an odd look on his face, as if he wanted very much to say something, but at the same time really, _really_ didn’t.

Gokou waited, but Vegeta simply glared then, after a few silent moments that began to grow more and more uncomfortable, the man made a quiet noise of disgust and turned back to what he’d been doing before he spoke.

Reading again. Somehow it just seemed so…not Vegeta.

Gokou continued to watch the man reading for a while before finally breaking the still uncomfortable silence.

Compromise…

“Vegeta… Tell me about Vegeta-sei.”

“What?!” Vegeta’s voice was startled and the eyes that snapped up to stare at him were wide.

Gokou met his gaze and looked back intently, “You said, the other day, that I didn’t know anything about our people, or our Planet, and you’re right. I don’t. But I want too…” he hesitated slightly, “so I want you to tell me.”

“Tell you?” Vegeta repeated, and Gokou nodded firmly, holding his breath. This would either go well, or blow up in his face. He _really_ hoped it was the former.

Vegeta suddenly scowled, “Is this why you’ve been acting so oddly today?” he demanded.

Gokou blinked, then blushed, “Err… Well… Yeah.”

Vegeta scowled again and went back to his book. “Idiot!”

“Well?”

Vegeta stayed silent for a moment and then glared back up at him, “’Well’ what?”

“Will you tell me?”

Vegeta growled in exasperation, looking back at his book, “There’s no reason not too. What do you want to know?”

Gokou felt his expression clear, and broke out into a grin. To the untrained eye he didn’t look it, but Vegeta was pleased. His exasperation was feigned, and he wasn’t really reading the book. Gokou had his undivided attention.

Mission compromise: _Successful._


	6. Six

#  _**Chapter Six**_ :

 

Gohan was beginning to get worried.

Since the man, Domino, had shown up things in his life had steadily begun to change.

He and Goten were being run ragged with training. His Dad, and Vegeta were barely around, always off doing some sort of intense training, and his mother was being insufferable, complaining about everything and nothing. She complained when her husband wasn’t home, then she complained when he was. She complained that her son’s were going to become brainless thugs and then claimed all of their free time to drill them with nearly impossible schoolwork. And she complained, and complained, about Vegeta.

All these things, these changes, were normal. Gohan had come to expect it because it was simply the way his family worked.

There were other changes though.

Like how Gokou no longer seemed to have time for his son’s, not even in training. Or how, on the off chance that they hadn’t disappeared somewhere at first light, Gokou and Vegeta would sit for hours on end, heads together, earnestly discussing _Kami-sama_ knew what.

Also, Krillin and Yamucha had been spending a lot of their time around the house as well. Their excuse was that they wanted to see Gokou, to make sure he wasn’t being overwhelmed into insanity by having to spend so much time around Vegeta. And to see how everyone’s training was going… All they seemed to be doing, though, was spend all their time chatting with his mother’s new friend, Deejay.

She was another thing that had Gohan worried. She was always around now, whether it was helping his mother with the chores, or chatting with Yamucha and Krillin, she was _always_ there. Normally with her eyes glued to his Father and Vegeta if they happened to be close by. Gohan was sure that she still half believed that her ludicrous idea about the two full-Saiyan’s relationship was correct; she watched the two men as if she were trying to catch them out somehow.

The problem was that Gohan had begun to watch the two men as well. Not for the same reasons as Deejay he hoped - probably for the same reasons as Yamucha and Krillin.

His Dad had been steadily changing from his close association with the Saiyan Prince – and Gohan didn’t like the changes at all.

Sure, it was great that they were getting along better, and that Vegeta didn’t seem to feel the need any more to constantly challenge the other man in futile attempts to beat him… But did they really have to look like they were enjoying each other’s company so much?

Gohan was supposed to be studying as he had these thoughts, but he’d given up on that nearly an hour ago. Now he simply sat at his desk, his pencil pressed against his cheek as he stared out the window at the perfect view he had of where his father and Vegeta sat, once again immersed in discussion.

Not quite out of his sight, Yamucha, Krillin and Deejay were sitting in the sunshine quietly talking, their own gazes also on the Saiyan pair.

He was fairly sure he could guess the conversation topic of the three…but of the other two he hadn’t a clue. It was probably none of his business, whatever it was that the two men had been talking about so intently for the passed few weeks, maybe it was strategies for defeating Domino.  He mulled the thought over and lowered his pencil to tap it against his workbook. If it _was_ strategies for defeating Domino, then why weren’t they talking about it with the others – after all, Yamucha, Krillin, and himself were all close by and would probably be of help to the discussion.

A flicker of movement from the two men outside made Gohan refocus his attention and his eyes narrowed as his father leaned in closer to Vegeta, resting a hand on the other man’s arm. That was another thing that had changed. The two touched now; a lot. He wasn’t quite sure when he’d first noticed it happening, but over the last few weeks he’d noted that the frequency of the touches had increased. Since when had Vegeta begun to allow people to act so casually with him? Especially when it was his most loathed rival?

 Gohan’s attention was now fully on the hand his father had resting on Vegeta’s arm and when, after a while, he still hadn’t removed it, Gohan stood up. It had been nearly three weeks since these ‘mysterious’ conversations had started and Gohan had finally had enough of it. I wanted to, _needed_ to find out if it was something he should be worrying about. 

Making his decision, Gohan dropped his pencil onto his desk and left his room, heading to where the two older Saiyan's were.

## **

“I don’t understand.” Gokou tilted his head to the side slightly as he thought, catching his lower lip between his teeth and worrying at it.

“Of course you don’t understand.” Vegeta’s voice was irritated, “You weren’t there.”

“Neither were you.” Gokou challenged, leaning forwards and putting his hand on the other mans arm. The muscles flexed slightly under his touch but he didn’t really notice, focusing instead on the man’s reply.

“I lived in the aftermath so I understand it just as well as those who lived through it. You didn’t.” He added with a slight growl.

Gokou grinned and, pulling his leg up against his chest, rested the elbow of his free arm on his knee and leaned his head in his hand, “I suppose you’re right. I only saw the end of everything, I guess.”

Vegeta growled slightly and glared off into the forest, “Freeza manipulated our people for nearly 20 years, you couldn’t possibly comprehend what that does to a race if you only show up at the end.”

Gokou immediately lost his smile at Vegeta’s tone and tightened his grip on the man’s arm and leaning towards him, “Vegeta…”

“Dad.”

Gokou jumped and pulling away from Vegeta quickly, twisted on the spot.

“Gohan?!” Gokou breathed a sigh of relief and laughed, his hand going behind his head to run through his hair, “Make some noise next time, son. I nearly had a heart attack.”

“Sorry.” Gohan didn’t even look at his father; instead his gaze was burning into the back of Vegeta’s head.

“Did Chichi want something?” Gokou asked after a moment, trying to figure out Gohan’s behaviour.

“No.” Gohan finally looked away from Vegeta and stared at his father, “I just wanted to ask something.”

Gokou looked perplexed, “Sure. What?”

“What were…?”

“Gokou! There’s trouble!” Gohan’s voice was over ridden as Yamucha, followed by Krillin, came flying over in a sudden burst of speed.

“Huh?” Gokou asked intelligently and suddenly Vegeta was on his feet.

“ _Domino_!” Vegeta growled and Gokou looked at him closely before extending his senses searching for whatever it was he’d missed.

A second later he was also on his feet. Vegeta was right; it was Domino. And he was in the forest; no… he was in a township just beyond the forest.

“Gohan, tell Chichi we’ve gone.” Gokou threw the words over his shoulder distractedly as, in one clean movement, both he and Vegeta threw themselves into the air and raced towards where they could sense the evil ‘Ki’.

Gohan simply stood where he was, slightly open-mouthed. “Shouldn’t…we go with them?”

“I reckon they can handle it.” Yamucha said staring up at the sky.

“Sure they can.” Krillin agreed and nodded his head.

“That never ceases to amaze me.” Deejay said, coming up behind them, “I still can’t believe you people can do things like that. My brain is still telling me it’s impossible.”

Gohan turned and looked at the three others, then let his gaze focus directly on Yamucha. “How did you know there was trouble before Dad and Vegeta did?”

Yamucha’s expression went slightly wooden.

“Well…” Yamucha began.

“It was on the news.” Deejay piped up over top of him and gestured back at the house. “Complete devastation. Apparently at the hands of the same person that destroyed most of…of…” her face screwed up slightly in thought, “I forget the name of the city. He was blond I think.”

Gohan nodded after a moment, then sighed and went to tell his mother that his father had left.

## **

Smoke.

It was the first thing Gokou could see when they began to get close to the town. It was everywhere and made it nearly impossible to see, much less breathe.

Gokou held his breath as they got closer, his eyes and his senses darting every which way in search of their prey.

“Over there!” Vegeta warned sharply, and Gokou immediately spun in time to dodge a blazing red Ki-blast.

His eyes followed the pathway back to where it had come from and then narrowed as he caught sight of the man they sought standing in plain sight at the edge of the town, away from the continuous billows of smoke.

Following behind Vegeta, Gokou landed and glared at the blond.

“ _Domino!_ ”

“Son Gokou. Prince Vegeta.” The man nodded slightly to both of them in acknowledgment, smiling a smile that got wider as Gokou took a threatening step forward at the cordial greeting.

Vegeta’s arm came up across Gokou’s chest, barring his way, and glared at Domino. “Kisama…”

“Pleasant, as always, I see.” Domino pushed a lock of fringe out of his eyes and smiled again.

“Why did you do this?!” Gokou demanded.

Domino lifted an eyebrow, “This? You mean why did I destroy this township?” He flicked his hand towards the merrily burning buildings, “No reason.”

“Why you… All those _people_!” Gokou ground the words out, taking another step forwards and ignored Vegeta’s arm pressing hard against his chest.

Domino laughed, “Do not be worried about the inhabitants, Son Gokou. They are all quite alive and will remain so for as long as I have use of them. You do not believe me? I will let you see for yourself.”

Gokou glanced around quickly as Domino gestured again and they were suddenly surrounded, the towns people all seeming to appear out of thin air.

“There were not many of them here,” Domino said languidly, “but there were enough for this little meeting. You seemed to enjoy the company of my Servants so much last time we meet that I felt obliged to provide some for you this time as well.”

“ _Bastard_!” Gokou growled the word as he tensed his muscles in case they were attacked.

Domino laughed in delight, “Such language. I believe you have been spending too much time around the Prince.”

“No thanks to you!” Beside Gokou, Vegeta had also tensed, but seemed to be more focused on Domino.

Domino smiled, “There is no need to thank me. It is the least I could do for you both.”

Vegeta began to growl and Domino sighed dramatically, still smiling.

“I see that neither of you are really in the mood to exchange pleasantry’s. Perhaps you would prefer to get straight to the point where I defeat you.”

“We’ll see who defeats who, _kisama_!” Vegeta growled and leapt forward, on the attack.

Domino disappeared…and reappeared, his arms outstretched, in the short space between the two Saiyan’s.

“My, my. I do believe your Bond has gotten smaller. Has it been an entire month since we last spoke _already_? My, it must be so inconvenient only being able to move within ten-feet of each other.” The man ‘tsk-ed’ then jumped high into the air, narrowly avoiding a double attack from Gokou and Vegeta. The man’s expression was still a pleasant smile as he hovered in the air, his arms crossed over his chest as he looked down on the two. “Of course, I am talking far too much. Allow me to begin the entertainment then.” With that he uncrossed one arm and, lifting his hand slightly, clicked his fingers. Instantly the possessed townsmen leapt to the attack.

“Damn it!” Gokou swore, and dodged a couple of the attacks and looked around quickly for Domino. The man had disappeared.

“ _Kisama! Coward! Stop sending your play-things and fight us like a man!_ ” Vegeta yelled.

Gokou dived around two Servants and lightly knocked their heads together, sending them to the ground unconscious, and moved to stand back-to-back with the enraged Vegeta.

“Did you see where he went?” Gokou asked him and sent another couple of Servants to the ground in a blanket of unconsciousness as gently as he could.

“Idiot! Do you think I’d be yelling for him if I’d seen where he went?!” Vegeta snapped and punched a Servant hard in the face, sending him flying backwards to knock out nearly seven others.

“ _Vegeta_ , be careful!”

The man growled, but his attacks on the constant flow of Servants became, if not gentle, then at least less deadly.

“We…we need to get away from them.” Gokou said after a moment and Vegeta grunted noncommittally.

Pushing an entire group of the Servant’s to the ground to sprawl in disarray of tangled limbs, Gokou began to look around quickly, scanning the area for somewhere they could get away from the villagers. They could knock them all out, but it would take too much time, time that Domino would be using to flee. If they were delayed too long they’d never find the man.

As Gokou glanced around, a glint of colour caught his attention and he focused on it sharply. It was a fragment of dark purple fabric, the same shade as Domino’s long shirt, flapping in the breeze from some source behind a half burnt out wall on top of a building only a few metres away.

A surge of exultation flowed through Gokou and he smirked. Maybe they wouldn’t have to deal with the Servants. He and Vegeta could move faster than the Servants and if the two of them knew where Domino was then they could attack him directly.

“Vegeta…”

“Yes!” came the snapped reply, “I felt you. Cut with the explanations and just tell me where you saw him!”

Gokou blushed lightly as he crouched back waiting for the Servants he’d previously knocked down to come at him now that they had finally regained their feet.

“He was on a building to my left, on top, behind a burnt out wall.”

Vegeta punched a Servant in the gut, crumpling the man to the ground, and then kicked him roughly out of the way of his standing room, his eyes quickly darting behind him to the building the other man had mentioned. He saw nothing.

“I don’t see anything.”

“He was there.”

“Well he’s not now!”

Vegeta swung his arm around and knocked the group around him into a short backwards flight, clearing some space around him and letting him take a moment to breathe. Out of the corner of his eye he watched Gokou glance up to where Domino had been and frown, then the man’s lips tightened.

“He only moved slightly, he’s still there, you just can’t see him from your angle.” He said firmly and Vegeta ground his teeth.

“Fine. Then we attack!”

Gokou blinked as Vegeta suddenly launched himself from the ground and quickly followed suit, months of practise letting him stop what he was doing and follow behind the other man before he reached the limit of their Bond. At lightning speed they flew at the place where Gokou had spotted Domino and they crashed through the lone, burnt out wall in a shower of dust, brick, and charcoal. A startled sound was drowned out by the sound of Vegeta’s fist impacting on flesh, and the person he’d hit flew in a long arc and disappeared over the side of the building.

Gokou landed, his feet skidding across rubble and kicking up dust as he slowed from the incredible speed he’d been moving at, and then rushed to the edge of the building to peer over. Smoke from the other, still burning buildings floated around, mixing with the dust of the target’s landing, making it nearly impossible to see.

“Whoever it is, is still down there.” Vegeta said flatly, his arms crossed over his chest, “I can still feel their ‘Ki’.”

Gokou nodded slightly then staggered forward suddenly, dropping to one knee as something latched onto him from behind. The Servants had made it up onto the building.

## **

This was impossible. No, not impossible. Gokou and his Prince were truly great warriors, so it shouldn’t have been such a surprise that they would find his hiding place. He hadn’t really been hidden all that well to begin with, his desire to watch the two men struggling futilely with the possessed townsfolk had overcome his common sense and instead he had relied on the confusion caused by the servants to hide him.

As Domino pushed himself up slowly into a sitting position amongst the dust and smoke, and wiped a trickle of blood from his mouth with his sleeve, he reflected that it obviously hadn’t been the best of his plans. He briefly wondered if it had been a fluke accident that had allowed the two men to find him, or the result of their training that allowed them to see his hidden ‘Ki’, then dismissed the question from his mind. Regardless of how it had happened the two Saiyan’s needed to be punished for once again daring to harm him. He’d barely only recovered from the burns of the ‘Ki’-blast Vegeta had thrown at him; he did not relish the thought of another injury to heal.

Domino felt himself begin to growl. Twice now these uppity Saiyan’s had taken him by surprise and inflicted damage. This time the lesson he would teach them would be a hard and painful one.

As the smoke and dust finally began to dissipate, Domino climbed to his feet, tossed his now slightly unravelled braid over his shoulder and pushed his fringe out of his eyes. This time they would know the true pain of their _Bond_.

## **

Vegeta was pressed up against the edge of the roof, surrounded by a group of Servants, slightly off balance from the feeling of empty air behind him, and on the edges of his and Kakorotto’s Bond. He growled. He couldn’t fall off, he couldn’t fly and he couldn’t blast these fools into oblivion. Quickly he let his eyes dart over to where the other man struggled against another group of Servants and felt himself growl again. Still to far away to allow Vegeta to do anything, and to busy with his own problems to help. His eyebrow barely even twitched at the thought of requiring help from his archrival, months now of having to endure the Bond finally making him realise that within the confines of the Bond, helping each other was unavoidable.

Vegeta changed his balance slightly and flinched slightly at the sounds of small stones and ash being dislodged from beneath his feet to clatter to the ground below. This was a situation Vegeta had known would happen, the constraints of the Bond against Kakorotto’s insistence not to kill the innocent’s Domino had possessed.

One of the Servants before him took a step forward and smirked, hefting a sturdy looking piece of wood in his hands and Vegeta realised the problem was a moot point. Kakorotto would simply have to suffer in the knowledge that Vegeta had had to kill these people for them both to survive.

Bracing himself, Vegeta began to gather his ‘Ki’ into his hand, melding it into a tight ball of efficient energy and preparing to take out all the Servants on the roof at once.

And then the roof dropped out from beneath him.

Taken by surprise, Vegeta released his hold on the ‘Ki’-blast and instead tried to focus his ‘Ki’ enough to fly. And that’s when the pain hit him. Instantly his concentration shattered and he was barely aware of slamming into the ground amongst the other debris from the burnt out building. All he was aware of was the burning agony that began in his chest and immediately began to spread throughout his limbs. Dimly he thought he might have heard his name but it was blocked out instantly; the pain coursing through every part of his body blinding him, deafening him, and trapping him in it’s intensity.

## **

“ _Vegeta!!_ ” 

Gokou had felt the roof tremble, heard the sound of it breaking, an instant to late. Spinning quickly, he’d had enough time to see Vegeta topple off the edge of the building before he was suddenly on one knee, clutching at his chest. Vegeta had fallen out of the limits of the Bond. _How far?_ Gokou couldn’t think straight, the pain was blinding. _Vegeta_ , he had to get to Vegeta.

Clutching his chest harder, Gokou tried to pull himself to his feet but was stopped by a gentle hand on his shoulder pushing him back down. He tried to resist the hand, but he felt weaker than a day old kitten, the pain seeming to sap him of his strength.

“So you can still move?” A gentle voice above him inquired, then there was a soft chuckle, “Interesting. Prince Vegeta can barely even twitch a finger at present; I guess this means your threshold for pain is higher. That is good. It will make what is to come much more fun…for me.”

Gokou grit his teeth and struggled to lift his head, fighting the waves of pain that crashed into him and looked upwards into Domino’s pleasantly smiling face.

“K…kisama… Where…where’s…Vegeta?” 

“You would like to see him? As you wish.”

Gokou let out a sound of surprise as Domino lifted him suddenly by the back of his shirt and hurled him from the side of the building; briefly he felt wind flying passed him, then he let out a grunt as he crashed into a pile of loose debris. Behind him he heard Domino land, then there was a sudden explosion.

Gokou struggled to sit up as more debris began to slam into the ground around him and a fine sifting of dust filtered down over him. Before him, Domino stood, one hand pushing his fringe out of his eyes, the other resting on his hip as he watched remains of what had been the building they’d been fighting on covering the ground.

Domino turned to smile at Gokou over his shoulder, “It was in the way.” He offered simply and then pointed off to the side where a group of Servants stood. “Your Prince lays amongst them.”

Gokou flickered his eyes in the direction quickly, long enough to confirm that he could see Vegeta, curled in on himself, his breathing laboured, then looked back at Domino. The man was still smiling that infuriatingly congenial smile.

Gokou tried to force his brain to work through the pain. They had to defeat Domino, but he couldn’t do much while he was incapacitated like he was. Somehow he had to get to Vegeta. He had to get to Vegeta and get him back on his feet so they could fight.

Pain suddenly smashed Gokou in the face, along with Domino’s foot, and he found himself falling backwards to lie on his back, blood dripping down into his eyes as he stared up at Domino’s pleasant expression.

“Trying to figure out how to defeat me? Attempting to think of a plan through your pain to save your _friend_ so that you can fight me unhindered?” Domino crouched down and grabbed Gokou by the front of his top and pulled him to his feet, “I apologise, but that will not be possible.”

Gokou suddenly doubled over in pain as Domino’s knee connected with his stomach. The blonde man released his hold on Gokou, letting him stumble backwards a few steps, then lashed out, slamming his fist into the other man’s jaw and once again hurling him backwards to land in a puff of dust and stones.

Gokou lost all thought after that. The blows came fast and strong, knocking him around the small area as if he were a helpless kickball. All he was really aware of was the pain, the pain in his chest that let him know of his connection to Vegeta. Sometimes the pain was unbearable, and he thought he would, _knew_ he would black out. Then it would ease, almost to nothing, enough so that he could almost drag his thoughts back from where ever it was they were hiding. Then it would begin again. He tried to stay focused, but all he could focus on was Vegeta. He knew the man was hurting and, after what seemed like an eternity, he knew the precise moment the Saiyan Prince lost consciousness.

The pain fell to an ache then, if you could call the screaming agony that ran through his limbs an ache. He knew though, that he was hurting less than he had been. He didn’t know how long it took him to finally get his thoughts in order again, but when he finally managed to peel his eyelids open, it was dark and he was alone. He lay, his breathing laboured, staring up at the night’s sky, the smell of smoke still thick in his nostrils and pain still shuddering through his limbs.

How much of the pain was from the Bond with Vegeta, and how much from his injuries? He could feel the other man in the back of his mind when he thought about it; he was still unconscious, seeking refuge from the pain in a world of darkness. Gokou couldn’t blame him; he wished he could do the same but… Gritting his teeth, Gokou twitched his arm, then rolled over; getting the limb beneath him so he could push himself up into a sitting position. Agony flared over his body, but he ignored it, a trail of fresh blood dripping down his chin telling him he had bit through his lower lip.

He could feel where Vegeta was, and he was determined to get to him. Inch, by slow inch, he pulled himself to his knees then began to drag himself across ground and rubble, closing the distance slowly but surely. He wanted to simply lie down and die, he was so sore, so tired, but he knew he couldn’t. He knew he had to keep going, had to get to Vegeta to see if the man were injured. Had too. … _Have too_ …

He almost wept with relief when he realised some of the pain was draining out of him. He had reached the ten-foot limit; the pain could only disappear now. A few moments later he felt flesh under his hand and the pain that had been constricting his chest disappeared completely, leaving behind only ghost pains, and a few sharp aches from his wounds. Later he would probably be in as much pain as he had been earlier, but for now he felt as if he’d been completely healed.

Breathing deeply, Gokou gathered Vegeta up in his arms and then staggered to his feet and looked around, peering through the moonlit darkness until he finally saw a building, or what was left of one, that would provide enough shelter until morning.

Staggering, Gokou somehow managed to drag himself and Vegeta to what turned out to be little more than the burnt out corner of a room, with a small overhang for a roof, and slumped to the ground, finally letting himself fall into blessed, black oblivion.

## **

When Vegeta woke up he was unaccountably warm.

Not physically warm, but emotionally. Sleepily, he contemplated the thought and decided that it was unusual. He was sure he never woke up feeling like that, and in fact the feeling was so alien to him that he probably never _had_ woken up with it. Rousing himself slightly Vegeta let his mind float closer to actually being _awake_ and attempted to remember what had happened to him before he went to sleep. His memory was broken, fragmented and blurry – he could barely remember anything. The last thing he remembered clearly was sitting outside of the Son family household, discussing Freeza’s domination of the Saiyan race with Kakorotto.

He floated further towards consciousness and forced himself to remember. They had been talking and then Kakorotto’s eldest son had interrupted, and then had been joined by the man’s bumbling friends. Then…then…

_Domino!_

Vegeta’s mind launched straight from half-asleep, to full wakefulness in an instant. His eyes flew open and he moved to sit up, every nerve afire with tension.

He encountered one problem. He couldn’t sit up; something was holding him down. Vegeta froze and let his sense’s try to explain to him what was going on. All he could see was a dirty, blackened stonewall, surrounded by ashes. That answered the question of ‘Where was he’. He was still at the township Domino had burnt down.

Slowly he tried to move the arm he wasn’t laying on and found it was bound to his side. _Ropes…?_ He looked down. _An arm?!_

A suspiciously familiar arm. _Kakorotto?_

After a moment of shock, Vegeta began to work at trying to pry the arm off of him enough so he could sit up. It got him nowhere and by the time he gave up he was glaring at nothing in particular and swearing, loudly, at the slumbering man behind him. Finally, Vegeta growled and tried something more drastic to wake the man up. He rammed his elbow backwards, hard, smacking Kakorotto in the chest.

Pain!

Groaning, Vegeta suddenly doubled up, clutching at his chest, he barely noticed that the arm around him had loosened its grip slightly, which would have allowed him to break free if he chose.

There was a long moment of silence as Vegeta waited for the mysterious pain to disappear, which was eventually broken by a pained voice behind him.

“There are… gentler ways…to wake someone…up…Vegeta.” The other man’s voice sounded laboured.

Vegeta stayed silent for a moment, contemplating all the reason’s Kakorotto would be sounding like he did. _He must be injured._

“Let me up.” He demanded.

“…No.”

Vegeta’s expression went from a fixed glare, to startlement. “Kakorotto! I said, let me up!”

“And I…said no.” 

What the hell? Why’s he…?

“Don’t want too…let go…yet.” Kakorotto explained, perhaps hearing Vegeta’s unvoiced question, perhaps not. For once Vegeta wasn’t about to mention it either. “You weren’t…close…enough…yesterday. It hurt. Don’t want…to let…go.”

Kakorotto’s breathing was becoming more laboured with every word and Vegeta was beginning to feel the telltale ‘phantom’ pains he got whenever the other man was injured. It was clear however, that Kakorotto was attempting to block the pain from Vegeta.

“Kakorotto...” Vegeta growled warningly, “I don’t care what your reason’s are, just let me _go_!”

Instead of loosening his grip, Kakorotto simply tightened it.

“I’m sorry.”

And then Vegeta could feel it. Excruciating pain. Distress. Anxiety. _Hurts. Hurts, want to pass out. Blessed darkness - away from pain. Want too; want too. Can’t. Vegeta, Where’s Vegeta? Have to protect him… Can’t let him get hurt. To far away, can’t feel him. Only feel his pain. He hurts. Hurts. I want him to stop hurting. Stop hurting. Have to stop the hurting. Have to get to him to stop the hurting. Can’t reach him; want to hold him. Vegeta. Vegeta. It hurts!_

Vegeta’s eyes were wide and unseeing as he came out of the wave of emotion Kakorotto had accidentally swept him up in. His free hand was clutching the ground in a death grip, his body shaking and his breath’s coming in short, laboured pants from the intense feelings.

Kakorotto had been worried. _No_ , Kakorotto had been _that_ worried. Vegeta wouldn’t have thought…would never have guessed that Kakorotto would feel that intensely about his rival’s safety. No matter how scatter brained the man was, or how caring for his companions, Vegeta would never have guessed that _he_ was thought of along with them. Vegeta was all the other man had thought about while he was being beaten by Domino. Vegeta and his safety. Vegeta and his pain. Vegeta. Vegeta. Vegeta.

And it wasn’t just this time. Vegeta had felt as if the feeling wasn’t a new one to the other man. As if he always worried, always wanted to be there to protect him. He almost couldn’t accept it. Almost couldn’t…but he knew Kakorotto’s emotions couldn’t lie to him, not when it was as if it were his own emotions he was feeling; and not when the other man was so injured.

Vegeta blinked suddenly as he realised that when the emotions had stopped invading his senses, his awareness of the other man in the back of his mind had dulled as well. Kakorotto was unconscious.

## **

“What do you _mean_ you don’t know where they are!?” 

Bulma had had a bad day. It had begun with an overly long, overly boring, overly annoying board meeting with the executives of Capsule Corp. about the year’s prospective earnings and new design schedule; and had moved on to a series of potential inventions that only succeeded in exploding, _im_ ploding, and in one case making her a cappuccino. The cappuccino had been a welcome relief from the day and she had sat drinking it as she contemplated the machine that had made it. The cappuccino was well made and quite delicious; she just couldn’t figure out how a machine designed to direct air traffic had made it.

After finishing her cappuccino, Bulma had given up on the machine and instead prepared for Gokou and Vegeta’s scheduled ‘check up’. An hour of fruitless waiting later she had finally phoned their house on Mt Paozu to see where they were – and had gotten Yamucha.

// “I’m really sorry, Bulma, but I really don’t know. They got up and left yesterday and we haven’t seen them since. Chichi is ropeable.” //

“Well where did they _go_?!” Bulma demanded, tapping her foot in annoyance.

// “Oh, well there was this attack on a nearby Town and they went to check it out.” //

Bulma’s foot instantly stopped tapping. “They went to look at an attack, they haven’t come back and you’re acting _this calm_?!”

// “Come _on_ , Bulma. It’s Gokou and _Vegeta_. If they can’t take care of themselves then worrying about them isn’t going to help much. Look, I have to go. Chichi is looking murderous about me using her phone line. Bye~!” //

Bulma glared at the phone herself as it clicked then she heard the dial tone. What a _moron_. Anything could have happened to the two men!

Slamming the phone onto her desk, Bulma stalked quickly out of her ‘lab’ and into the gardens around the Capsule Corp. building then, pulling a small case of Capsule Corp. instant transportation capsules from her pocket, she selected one and released it, leaping in as soon as it was ready and flying up into the air, her fingers automatically clicking on the inbuilt computer to check the latest headlines as she flew.


	7. Seven (Final)

#  Chapter Seven

 

~: _Wake up. Wake up, wake up; wake up!_ : ~

Vegeta sat at Kakorotto’s bedside and tried to suppress the dark, sick feeling that sat like a lead balloon in the bottom of his stomach.

After Kakorotto had passed out, he hadn’t woken again. No matter how much Vegeta had ordered, demanded, poked or shook him, Kakorotto had remained stubbornly cataleptic, not even issuing so much as a pain filled grunt.

Later that morning, to Vegeta’s carefully hidden relief, Bulma had appeared and, under a fierce glare from the short Saiyan, had flown them quickly to Capsule Corp. It wasn’t till they finally arrived that she managed to see Kakorotto’s wounds though, and she had disappeared immediately, muttering about getting Gohan and the pouch of Senzu.

Vegeta had ignored her, concentrating instead on settling the taller man into the same bed he’d occupied _last_ time he’d been injured. That had been almost two hours ago.

Bulma still hadn’t returned, and Kakorotto hadn’t done anything to prove he was still alive, except for his erratic, shallow breathing.

Vegeta watched the slow, almost invisible, rise and fall of the other man’s chest and then tried, once again, to reach him in the only way left to him.

~: _Wake up, Kakorotto!_ : ~ He hadn’t wanted to use the ‘side effects’ that the Bond had produced, but he’d run out of choices. Talking and yelling at the man hadn’t helped. Deliberately provoking his wounds hadn’t either.

Getting into his thoughts, breaking through the muffling blanket that covered the other’s mind; that’s what Vegeta had to do.

~: _Kakorotto!_ : ~

He wasn’t sure why, but he needed to get Kakorotto to respond. Of course, so long as the man was still breathing, the Senzu would heal him, but Vegeta needed too, _had_ to get a response. Something, _anything_ to prove to him that Kakorotto could still hear him; that he was all right.

~: _Damnit, Kakorotto! Wake up! …Just…just_ _ **wake up**_ _!_ : ~

Vegeta moved his eyes up to the unconscious man’s face with an expression he would never acknowledge was pleading, and felt a surge of triumph. It had been brief, but Vegeta had seen the other man’s eyes flicker.

~: _Kakorotto?!_ : ~

Again, the flicker!

Vegeta moved from his chair to sit on the side of Kakorotto’s bed and half leaned over him.

He’d done it! He’d broken through the other’s haze of unconsciousness and gotten a response. Kakorotto was all right.

Vegeta could ‘feel’ him now, too. A gentle pulse in the back of his mind that had been achingly absent while Kakorotto had been stuck in his abnormal sleep.

Quickly, Vegeta lowered his eyelids slightly and lifted his hand to Kakorotto’s cheek, concentrating as the touch made the Bond all that much stronger.

There was pain around the edges of what Vegeta could feel, pain and restlessness. And worry. Kakorotto was still worried about Vegeta, his mind battling against itself, grasping towards consciousness despite the pain that lay there, only focusing on the man that, under the circumstances, was the other half of himself.

Vegeta found himself leaning further forwards, his hand caressing down the other man’s cheek as he felt these emotions.

~: _Kakorotto… Kakorotto I’m…_ : ~

Vegeta broke off from his reassurance suddenly, snatching his hand away from the other man as if it had been burned and leapt to his feet. A second later, the door burst open and Gohan rocketed into the room, his face a picture of worry as he immediately dived for his father when he saw him and completely ignored Vegeta.

“Dad? _Dad!?_ ” 

Vegeta was vaguely aware of Bulma coming in after the boy and moving to stand next to him, maybe even speaking, but he ignored her as he watched Gohan with a sharp eye. The boy was fumbling with the ties of the pouch of Senzu, seeming to take forever before he got them undone and scattered them across his palm, quickly selecting the biggest there and pouring the rest back into the bag.

“Dad, you have to eat this. Dad, can you hear me?” The boy pleaded and placed the Senzu into the man’s mouth. There was a moment of stillness, then Gohan’s expression grew tighter and he leaned forward and tilted Kakorotto’s head backwards and gently began to massage the Senzu down his throat. 

Vegeta had his jaw clenched so hard it ached as he watched, the process taking far to long in his estimation and the results long in coming. It was a small eternity before Gohan sat back, satisfied, and Kakorotto’s body began to knit itself back together.  And it wasn’t until the man’s breathing was smooth and steady and that his eyes were flickering open that Vegeta finally unclenched his jaw and allowed himself to breathe.

“Dad…?”

Kakorotto groaned and lifted a hand to his forehead, “Go…Gohan? What…?”

The man’s eyes suddenly flew open and he sat bolt upright, nearly knocking his son to the floor.

“Where’s Vegeta?!” he demanded.

“Right here, Idio…” Vegeta cut off his remark with a sound of surprise as he suddenly had an armload of Kakorotto, the man squeezing Vegeta against him so hard he could barely breathe. “Kak…Kakorotto. Let go…Idiot!”

“You’re okay.” It was almost an inaudible litany. Kakorotto was chanting it under his breath as if it were his lifeline.

Vegeta scowled, “Kakorotto! I _said_ let me _go_!”

And Kakorotto laughed. Laughed with delight and released the smaller man, a beaming smile on his face.

“Sorry! Guess I got carried away.” He quickly turned to his son who had been watching the entire show with an unreadable expression, “Thank you. Both of you! I’m not sure how I got here, but I bet it has something to do with Bulma.” Kakorotto grinned again, “And ‘thank you’ for the Senzu, son.” 

Without seeming to think about it, Kakorotto brought his son in for a crushing, one armed hug, and Vegeta felt an irrational surge of jealously. Scowling further, he ignored it and levelled his glare on Bulma.

It took her a moment, but she finally realised she was the focus of the Saiyan princes’ attention and glared back, “What?”

Vegeta scowled deeper still, “Well don’t just stand there woman, make yourself useful. Bring us some food!”

Bulma bristled, but instead of arguing, as Vegeta had half expected, she turned tail and stalked from the room, slamming the door behind her.

Good. It was about time she did something useful, without complaint.

He turned his gaze back to Kakorotto who was rubbing the back of his head and looking at his son sheepishly. Vegeta had obviously just missed something.

“Well that…uhmm… Yeah, well. We thought we’d be alright, I guess.”

Gohan didn’t look happy. “You should have taken us! That’s why we’ve been training, to help you two! What if you’d died? We didn’t know where you’d gone, as soon as you left, Domino’s ‘Ki’ disappeared and we couldn’t follow. You’re lucky Bulma thought to check the news or else no one would have found you!”

“Go…Gohan!” Kakorotto protested but the boy cut him off.

“We were worried! Doesn’t that even _bother_ you? Lately all you’ve been doing is focusing on Vegeta and Domino, but what about the rest of us, we’re here too! Or do you not _want_ our help anymore!?” 

Kakorotto’s mouth was working silently, “G… _Gohan_!”

“I’m going to help Bulma.” Gohan suddenly stated, and slammed out of the room, leaving the last two occupants in silence, Kakorotto’s mouth still working silently as he attempting to think of something to say.

In the end Vegeta said it for him.

“ _You_ have allowed that one to spend too much time around your woman.”

“I…I… Gohan’s never… Have I really…?”

“ _Kakorotto_!” Vegeta snapped and then paused until the man turned to look at him. “It isn’t your fault if those weaklings failed to keep up with us and lost the sense of our ‘Ki’. And it’s not even important, what is important is _what happened_! Tell me.” He demanded.

Kakorotto’s expression went from slightly hurt, to pained in an instant.

“What…what happened? Oh… Oh, well…” He paused and turned to look out the window then shrugged a little, as if trying to rid himself of something annoying, “You fell. It knocked us out of the range of the Bond and you passed out. Domino seemed to think it was funny that I managed to keep myself from passing out, so decided to use me as a punching bag. I think he was trying to make an example of me.”

Vegeta blinked as Kakorotto suddenly turned back from the window, looking angrier than he’d ever seen him.

“He’s not going to get what he was hoping for though, I won’t let him play with me like that, and I certainly won’t let him hurt _you_.” He flexed his fingers, “I’m stronger now, thanks to him, and he hasn’t realised that we have one thing we haven’t tried yet.” Kakorotto’s fist clenched. “Once we’re finished here, we’re going up the Lookout to see Dende and see if he can get in contact with Kaio-sama. If anything, one of them might have some information on Domino. And if we’re lucky they can help us defeat him.”

## **

Trunks and Goten were bored.

Not just any kind of bored mind you; it was supreme, catatonia inducing, death defying _boredom_. They had nothing to do _at all_ ; at least nothing that they _wanted_ to do.

Everyone was fretting over the disappearance of the two boys’ fathers, so they’d been left with the strict instructions of not to go _anywhere_ and had been studiously obeying for at least an hour now. That, of course, was because the one in charge was Chichi, and both boys knew full well not to make _her_ mad.

Being good was beginning to take its toll though. Both boys were fidgeting so badly it almost looked like some form of comical dance, and their eyes kept darting around looking for potential escape points.

It was Trunks who finally ventured to break their boredom induced silence with some words of seeming wisdom.

“They…wouldn’t mind if we went and did some training, right? We can stay close and train, cause we need to train. Right?”

Goten nodded rapidly, already darting to his feet at the mere mention of having something to do.

“We have to remember to stay close though.” Trunks lectured with a worried look back to where Chichi could be heard lecturing about her ‘irresponsible husband’ quite clearly.

Goten nodded rapidly again and the two took to the air, determined to ‘stay close’. Of course, how close really _was_ close when you were two bored boys who could fly right around the planet in less than an hour?

## **

“Ha! You’re ‘It’!” Goten tagged Trunks hard on the shoulder and then, flipping end-over-end in mid-air, shot off in the opposite direction. 

Righting himself from the hard push, Trunks was only a second behind his friend and they shot out across the deserted countryside at lightning speeds, creating breezes passed trees when there was no wind, and knocking rocks down hills when there was apparently no one there to do so, all the while giggling gleefully.

It wasn’t until Goten lost his balance and tumbled headlong into a boulder the size of a small house, knocking pieces of the rock in fifty different directions, that the two finally stopped for a breather and sat down on the rubble strewn ground.

“Goten, you’re such a klutz.” Trunks complained, as he idly kicked small pieces of rock around with his feet. “You’re lucky that wasn’t someone’s house. We’d be in _big_ trouble now if it had have been. _Both_ of our Mum’s would be yelling at us, not to mention the owners! And…” Trunks trailed off from his lecture as he realised that Goten wasn’t paying any attention to him. 

“Goten!”

“Trunks! Look at _this!_ ”

Trunks sighed and prepared to have a three-eyed frog, or something of the like, shoved in his face.

“I think it was stuck in the rock!” Goten exclaimed and Trunks blinked, his eyes suddenly going wide at what he saw.

“Goten, is that…?”

“It’s the 4-star Dragonball!” The smaller boy crowed triumphantly.

By far, Trunks was quicker on the uptake then his best friend was, and while the particulars of what was going on with Domino hadn’t been intimately discussed with him, he still had a good idea of what was going on.

“Go…Goten! We have to take this to Gohan! Our Dad’s need to have it!”

Goten blinked for a moment, clutching the ball to his chest. “Do we have too? Can’t we find the rest and…”

Trunks jumped up and shook his head, “Come on!”

Reluctantly, Goten stood up too and the boys leapt into the air, heading back to Goten’s house on Mt Paozu.

## **

“… _You’re Father gone all night and then Bulma has to show up looking for Gohan and the senzu because he’s injured and I look around for you and you’re_ _ **not here**_ _!”_ Chichi paused for breath and Goten and Trunks flinched, almost wishing they hadn’t bothered coming back. But how were they to know that while they were gone their father’s would be found and that Trunks’ mum would show up to take Gohan to them? Now they just needed to get away from Chichi and find out where Gohan had gone.

“Uhmm…where did they go?” Goten asked, completely without tack, but it somehow seemed to derail the ranting woman.

“Go?” Chichi sniffed slightly, “They went to Capsule Corp. of course. Instead of bringing Gokou home, where he could recover, surrounded by his family, Bulma took Gohan there.”

Trunks and Goten looked at each other for a moment then nodded.

“We have to go there then!” Goten declared and Chichi’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh no you _don’t_ , mister. You two are staying right here where I can watch you! You’ll not go hooning off again!”

Goten looked crestfallen. “But Mum! We found a Dragonball!” To demonstrate he pulled the orange orb out of where he’d put it safely in his top and waved it at her. Behind Chichi, three sets of previously unconcerned eyes suddenly snapped onto the item in the boy’s hand and then moved to Chichi’s side.

“Look Goten,” Yamucha spoke quickly, “You have to listen to your Mum, right. Why don’t you give it to me or Krillin, and we’ll take it to Gokou for you.”

“Good!” Chichi snapped, “And that’ll get you no-good layabouts out of my home!”

Goten clutched the Dragonball in his hands and looked uncertain. Beside him Trunks’ eyes narrowed, giving him a sudden, uncanny resemblance to his father.

“We found it, we’re going to take it!” Trunks declared and yanked on Goten’s shirt, pulling him backwards. “Come on, Goten.”

“But Trunks…”

“Come _on_!” Trunks hadn’t missed all the sudden interest once the Dragonball was mentioned. He expected it from Yamucha and Krillin, but not from Deejay. That was just suspicious, and his father had always told him; if something seemed suspicious, then it probably was. 

Dragging Goten by the arm, Trunks took off into the air, ignoring Chichi’s yelled demands to come back, and put in an extra burst of speed, flying as fast as he could towards Capsule Corp.

## **

Trunks was close to tearing his hair out.

“What do you _mean_ they’re not _here_?!” he demanded, jumping from foot-to-foot.

“Just what I said, young man. And you mind your tone with me. Too.”

“Sorry, Mum. But we have to find Dad!”

Bulma shifted another piece of paper into a mounting pile on her desk and then levelled a _look_ at her son.

“What is so important that you have to chase him halfway across the planet, and shouldn’t you and Goten be up at Mt Paozu with Chichi?”

“Well…yeah… But…but…”

“We found a Dragonball!” Goten exclaimed.

“You _what_?” Bulma exclaimed at the same time as Trunks yelled; “Goten, stop _telling_ everyone!”

There was a moment of silence.

“They went up to the Lookout.” Bulma said.

“Thanks, Mum!” Trunks exclaimed, then grabbed Goten by the back of his shirt and dragged him outside.

## **

Dende’s expression was a picture of shock once Gokou had finished explaining to him what had been happening down on Earth over the last few months.

Slowly, his shock disappearing enough for him to get his voice working, the young Namekian spoke.

“I…I had no idea… I knew the Dragon had been summoned, but I felt the Z-senchi there and assumed everything was fine. I… Gokou, I’m sorry. Other than gathering the Dragonball's I don’t know of any other way to sever the Bond.”

Gokou scratched the back of his head. “Well, it was worth a try. Do you know anything about Domino?”

Dende shook his head.

“Of course he doesn’t!” Vegeta snapped, “Just hurry up and ask him to contact Kaio-sama.”[1]

“Oh! Oh, of course! He’ll probably know something.” Dende exclaimed and his expression turned to a frown of concentration.

~: You don’t need to try so hard, Dende. I was already listening. : ~

“What do you know of Domino?!” Vegeta demanded the instant Kaio-sama had stopped talking and the feeling from the mind voice became cold, as if offended. 

“Please?” Gokou added hurriedly, shooting a glare in Vegeta’s direction, “We…uhhh…know you’re the only one wise enough to know anything…”

~: Well of course I am. : ~ There was a pause, ~: Well I don’t know anything about Domino himself, but I know a little about his race. They come from the North Quadrant, so he’s a little far from home. I’ve heard that the people from his Home Planet aren’t the nicest of people which I suppose doesn’t matter since, a little over five years ago, they and their planet were destroyed. : ~

“Destroyed?” Gokou demanded, “But he got away, he’s the soul survivor? Then why is he bothering _us_?”

~: Well he’s probably been searching for a new home Planet. : ~

“But why is he trying to destroy us? We’d willingly let him live here if he were peaceful…” Gokou trailed off frowning.

“Perhaps he doesn’t want to concern himself with the insects from this planet.” Vegeta said into the silence, “This _is_ a nice planet and would be perfect if the human’s were eradicated.”

“Vegeta!”

Vegeta glanced at Gokou with one eyebrow raised, “It’s a correct assessment, and probably the correct answer.”

~: He’s probably correct, Gokou. : ~ Kaio-sama said. ~: You won’t be able to approach this man peacefully. : ~

~: At the rate things are going you won’t even be able to confront him successfully. Especially if this Domino character chooses not to show himself again until your Bond has diminished all the space left to you completely. : ~

Everyone went completely silent as the second mind voice joined the conversation.

“Who…”

~: Forgive me. I was observing the planet and over-heard your conversation. I am Kaioshin. : ~[2]

The mind voice of Kaio-sama spluttered, ~: Kaioshin-sama!? Why are you…?! : ~

“Who’s he?” Gokou butted in and suddenly cringed as he felt Kaio-sama’s mental ‘glare’ on him.

~: This is Kaioshin-sama, from the planet of the Kai’s! He’s much higher up in the afterlife than even I am. Be respectful to him! : ~

“Oh…” 

~: I didn’t mean to intrude, as I said, I was merely checking on a few things here on Earth and overheard. However I think that our interests coincide slightly. You wish to defeat this Domino character, and I agree. The power from this man is great, and if he is not defeated soon his power will grow. If it grows much more then it will endanger not just your planet, but also your entire universe. I have no wish for the kind of power this man will gather to himself to accidentally awaken… him. : ~

Gokou stared in a vaguely upward direction, confused. “Awaken…him?”

~: It is of no concern to you. However I think I have a means for you to defeat your enemy quickly, before it is to late. The Bond will not interfere with it at all. : ~

“What?” Vegeta snapped out the word impatiently.

~: Among my people there is an item that allows two people to fuse into one being. The fusion is permanent, yet it gives to the new entity a strength far surpassing the two single beings. If Gokou and Vegeta use it, they will become unbeatable. : ~ Kaioshin-sama explained.

“Fuse?” Gokou blinked, “Into one person?”

“ _Never!_ I can barely stand to be near him, you want me to become a _part_ of him? _Never!!_ ” 

“Vegeta…” 

“ _No!_ I refuse. We’ll come up with another way!” Vegeta snapped, his eyes slightly wide.

~: There probably isn’t another way, Vegeta. : ~ Kaio-sama cautioned.

“We’ll _find_ one!” Vegeta took a step towards the edge of the Lookout and glared at Gokou, “If this is the kind of suggestions we’re getting then we’d be better to spend our time training.”

Gokou stared after Vegeta helplessly as the shorter Saiyan turned his back and began walking away and then, with a quick look back towards Dende, he rushed to catch up with the other man.

~: Oh dear… Should I not have offered to help? : ~ Kaioshin-sama asked hesitantly.

“I think he’s just frustrated.” Gohan said from where he’d been, remaining silent during the entire conversation. “The Bond hasn’t made things easy for my Father and Vegeta and what you just proposed is almost worse than the Bond is.”

~: Yes, but it may be your only choice to defeat Domino. I really urge that someone speak to them – would they far sooner die than defeat their enemy? : ~

Gohan bit his lower lip for a moment then nodded, “I can speak with them. Vegeta is stubborn, but maybe further down the track when he doesn’t have any other choice, he’ll agree.”

~: Then my servant, Kibito, will bring the artefacts to you. : ~

Dende let out a gasp of startlement as a tall, longhaired man appeared suddenly beside him, an expression of supreme disapproval on his face.

“They have only to wear one each for the fusion to take effect.” He said stiffly and held out his hand to reveal a pair of earrings shaped like globes.

Gohan nodded slightly and took the earrings, quaking slightly under the man’s stern glare. An instant later the man disappeared again.

~: Good luck to you. : ~ Kaioshin-sama said. ~: I hope you are able to defeat your enemy, for everyone’s sakes. : ~

And his voice faded from the conversation leaving the rest in silence.

Gohan looked down at his hand and examined the earrings. They seemed fragile, but when he tapped them experimentally it was as if they were made of titanium steel.

“Will you try to give them to Gokou and Vegeta immediately?” Dende asked.

Gohan looked up, “I don’t think so. The way Vegeta is, he’d crush them and make them unusable. I’ll probably have to wait a few months, till they’re within one or two feet of each other, before he’ll even think about it.”

Dende nodded then looked passed Gohan and blinked.

Gohan turned and then frowned.

“Trunks, Goten. Why are you two up here? You’re supposed to be at home.”

“We found a Dragonball!”

Gohan and Dende’s mouth fell open simultaneously, and Trunks suddenly rounded on his companion, grabbing him by the front of the shirt and shaking him.

“Stop telling everyone!”

“B…but Tr…Trunks… I thou…thought w...we were _looking_ for Go…Gohan!” Goten managed to get out between shakes and Trunks suddenly stopped shaking him.

“Oh yeah…” He suddenly turned around and looked up at Gohan, “Where are our dad’s!? We have to show them! I mean, isn’t it weird that we found a Dragonball after they were used only three months ago!”

“That means there as only one wish made.” Dende said, startled. “If you make only one wish, then you can re-gather the Dragonball's in only three months, instead of having to wait a year.” [3]

“We…we have to take this to Dad!” Gohan exclaimed and grabbed Goten by the back of the shirt, pulling him towards the edge of the Lookout, trusting Trunks to follow. “Thanks, Dende!”

## **

Gokou and Vegeta had gone home before running off to train, at Gokou’s insistence that he couldn’t possibly train without having had a good meal.

Vegeta protested, but Gokou was insistent, so back to Mt Paozu they went, Vegeta scowling all the way.

Fusing. Into a single person. Vegeta’s scowl grew deeper. How could anybody possibly suggest that, much less to Vegeta? Hadn’t they realised that the main goal was to _get rid_ of the infernal Bond, not do it one better!

“Vegeta…” Gokou said the other mans name hesitantly. “If it’ll defea…”

“No!” Vegeta bit the word out before the other man could finish, “I won’t do that. Fusing with you is the most abhorrent thing anyone could have possibly suggested. It’s bad enough that I’m bound to have to _be around_ you like I am, I will not, _ever_ allow myself to become part of you.”

Vegeta kept his habitual scowl on his face and ignored the hurt silence that the other man exuded and concentrated on flying the last distance to the Son household.

They landed on the lawn in front of the house in complete silence and then stood still, looking at where Yamucha and Krillin stood on either side of the front door curiously.

“Yamucha. Krillin.” Gokou said, frowning a little. Something was wrong.

Vegeta’s eyes narrowed and he looked around, “Where are the children?”

Gokou’s head snapped up and he looked around quickly, using his senses to help, “And Chichi.”

Yamucha leaned back against the door-frame and smirked, “We think you know where the children are. Chichi though, she’s with us.”

Vegeta looked from one man, to the next and glared. Both Yamucha and Krillin’s eyes had a glittery purple sheen to them. The same shade of Domino’s own eyes.

“Domino has taken the woman. Why?”

Krillin crossed his arms over his chest, “We want the Dragonball. We’ll take it, in return for her safe return. Domino-sama estimates it shouldn’t take you longer than an hour to retrieve it from where you’ve obviously hidden it, and the children. You have exactly that long to get it and bring it to the island 200 clicks north from west city. If you’re late, then all you’ll be collecting is a corpse.”

Then, with speed Vegeta _knew_ the two men didn’t normally possess, they took to the sky and disappeared from sight.

Vegeta took a few steps in the same direction, then stopped and glared back at the other man who hadn’t moved the entire time.

“Kakorotto!”

“I…I didn’t think he’d go after Chichi. I… This is my fault.”

Vegeta growled in exasperation, “Then we should go before he does anything to her.”

Gokou suddenly turned around and levelled a glare at him, “We can’t just go!” he snapped, “They said Domino wants the Dragonball, we don’t _have_ a Dragonball! Why would he even ask for one? If he’s made his wishes then the Dragonball’s will remain regular stones for a year!”

“Except if he only made one wish.” Both Vegeta and Gokou spun and stared at where Gohan landed with Goten and Trunks close behind him.

“Dende said that if Domino only made one wish then the Dragonball’s would reappear after only three months. Goten?”

Not sure what exactly was going on, but finally glad to see his father, Goten rushed over to the man and pulled the four-star Dragonball from his top and held it up to him.

“The… four-star ball… Where… did you find this?”

Goten grinned, “I hit a boulder, with my head. The Dragonball was inside it.”

Slowly, Gokou crouched down and took the Dragonball from his youngest son and felt the weight of it in his hand. It really was one of the Dragonball's…and Domino knew they had it; had taken Chichi to assure he could get it from them.

Slowly, Gokou looked up at Vegeta and met his gaze; if they could defeat Domino now, then they could get the other six Dragonball's and un-wish the Bond. For a moment, Gokou felt a pang in his chest at the thought. There’d no longer be a reason for Vegeta to stick around, he’d leave again to be alone, whether it was the other side of the Planet, or the other side of the galaxy, and Gokou would go back to being by himself. He’d gotten used to Vegeta being around constantly and now that the possibility of Vegeta leaving was right in front of him, it almost made him leap forward and crush the man to his chest, begging him not to go.

He suppressed it though. In Vegeta’s eyes he could see the frantic desire to be rid of the ‘curse’ and he had no choice but to bow before that wish. Gokou wouldn’t, couldn’t hurt him. Now he had to give everything he had towards getting them free.

“Gohan.” Gokou finally looked away from Vegeta’s hungry gaze and up at his son, “Domino took your mother, as ransom for the Dragonball. We’re going to go now and get her back.”

Gohan had instantly gone pale and Goten had clutched the front of Gokou’s shirt.

“Where did they take Mum?!” the small boy demanded and Gokou looked down at him and patted his head.

“It’s alright, we’re going to get her, now. And if he hurt her…”

“We’ll kick his arse!” Trunks yelled and everyone turned to look at him. “Taking someone hostage isn’t the right way to fight!” he said, defending himself, and Vegeta nodded slightly, then suddenly looked up.

Above them came a wurring sound and then a plane hurtled down out of the sky, landing with a bump and the cockpit flew open, revealing a slightly bedevilled Bulma.

“Where’s Trunks?!” she looked around wildly, then threw herself out of the plane and clutched the boy quickly and glared around, “What on _Earth_ is going on?! I got this ridiculous letter saying that I had better get the Dragonball radar and find you two or else Trunks’ safety couldn’t be guarantied!”

Gokou blinked and then his expression went hard. “Domino kidnapped Chichi,” he stated quietly, “to get this.” He held up the four-star Dragonball and then moved to stand on his feet. “We were told to take it 200 clicks North of west city. We don’t have much time now; we’d better get going.”

Bulma nodded then herded the two children into her plane and jumped into the cockpit, taking off and preparing to follow along behind Gokou, Vegeta and Gohan.

## **

200 clicks North of West City, Gokou and Vegeta stood, side-by-side, glaring across the short distance at a very relaxed Domino.

“Where’s Chichi?!” Gokou growled the question and Domino smiled.

“With my Servants, of course. I would not worry; Deejay seems to have taken quite a liking to the woman. I doubt she would allow any harm to come to her. Probably.”

“Domino…!”

“Do you have the Four-Star Dragonball, Son Gokou? That was the condition of your woman’s release, you will not even see her before I have it.”

Gokou stood, his head down and his hands fisted at his sides, “Not until I’ve seen her! Not till I know she’s safe! Then I’ll get you the Dragonball.”

“ ‘Get me’ the Dragonball.” Domino tsk-ed, “Please tell me, Son Gokou, that you _were_ smart enough to bring it with you.” His eyes moved to stare over Gokou’s shoulder for a moment, towards where Gohan, Bulma and the children were hidden, and then he smiled, “Oh good. You _did_ bring it with you. This makes things much simpler. Now I will simply _take_ it.”

“We won’t let you have it!” Gokou growled and fell into a fighting stance, preparing to fight.

Domino laughed. A clear, delighted sound, that instantly had both Saiyan's on their guard.

“I am sorry, Son Gokou, but if you will pay very close attention you will see that you do not have a choice in the matter.”

The smile on Domino’s face grew broader still as, back near the hidden group, there was the sound of a plane taking flight and then the unmistakable sight of Bulma’s airplane, with Bulma in it, flying overhead and disappearing into the hills on the other side of the Island.

Domino chuckled at their shocked expressions. “I win.”

Gokou barely registered when a panting Gohan and the two children showed up behind him. He could only stare at Domino.

“Bulma…”

“Has been under my control for some time.” Domino finished for him. “At least four years now. She, and her genius, was perfectly positioned for me to gain the best information of you and your little circle of friends. Anything I have ever needed to know, Bulma Briefs has been able to find out for me effortlessly.

“And in your naivety you trusted her completely, allowing me to monitor the progression of your Bond and your training so that I could adjust accordingly. You were doomed to lose from the beginning Son Gokou. I have been, and will continue to be, one. Step. Ahead.”

It happened fast. Vegeta leapt forward, growling and determined to wipe the stupid, self-satisfied smirk off of Domino’s face, but instead met with a hand grasping him out of mid-air and holding him off the ground for an instant, then a second hand slammed into the side of his face, sending him flying through the air.

For the second time in 24-hours, Vegeta was assaulted by the soul ripped feeling of being too far outside the limits of the Bond. He barely registered hitting the ground, the agony of the Bond ripping into him and tearing at his insides, making his vision go black.

He grit his teeth. He wasn’t going to give in to it this time; wasn’t going to prove his weakness. Forcing the darkness back from his vision, Vegeta pulled himself to his knees, then staggered to his feet. He could feel Kakorotto, to the right of him, pain filled, desperate. He forced himself to move in that direction.

One step. Two steps. It felt like an eternity before he’d moved far enough towards Kakorotto that the pain began to recede.

Vegeta paused, taking a deep breath before he moved again, then his head snapped up in shock at what he heard now that the throbbing pain wasn’t blocking his senses.

“Don’t touch my Dad!”

“Goten!”

“No! Trunks, Goten stay out of it! _Damnit_ , dad you have to get up! Dad!”

Vegeta rushed the last steps he needed to get back to Kakorotto’s side and grabbed the man by the arm, ignoring the rush of relief that swept through him and pulled the other man to his feet.

“Vegeta?” Kakorotto sobbed the word with relief and clutched onto the smaller man’s arm for dear life.

“Damnit, Kakorotto. The children attacked Domino!”

Gokou’s head snapped up instantly as he searched the area for the children and gasped. “Damnit!”

“Dad!” Both Vegeta and Gokou’s gazes snapped to Gohan and the boy looked apologetic, “I couldn’t stop them, they wouldn’t listen. Are you alright?”

Gokou nodded numbly, “We have to stop Domino. He’ll kill them! They’re only kids.” He took a slightly unsteady step forwards, still trying to regain his bearings but Gohan put an arm out and held them back.

“But you can’t help! Not if you both dissolve when he hits you out of Bond range!”

Vegeta’s eyes narrowed. “You have another suggestion, or would you like us to just stand here and watch?”

“Use the item’s Kaioshin-sama offered you and fuse!” Gohan answered promptly. 

“ _No!_ ” Vegeta growled.

“So you’ll let the kids die?! Because you’re selfish! You can’t say it’s because you don’t like my father; I’ve _watched_ you both over the last three months and you like each other _just fine_! You’re just selfish and you don’t care if we die, so long as you get your way!”

“Gohan!” Gokou bit out, shocked at his son’s outburst, “That’s enough! This is _not_ the time. If he said no, then we find another way!”

“I’ll do it.” Vegeta said quietly then glared at the other two who stared at him. “I said I’d do it, now _give me the damned thing_.”

“Ahhh… Oh!” Gohan fumbled in his pocket and pulled the earrings out, holding them out to the two men. “You…you each wear one.”

Gokou took one slowly, while Vegeta stared at them for a moment, before snatching it as if it would run away.

“…Vegeta, are you _sure_?” Gokou asked hesitantly and found himself on the receiving end of a bitter glare.

“Let’s hurry this up. The kids won’t last much longer.” Vegeta changed his glare to Gohan, “Get out of the way. If this works or not, as soon as Domino takes his attention away from the kids, get in there and get them out of the way.”

Gohan nodded, then backed away quickly.

“Thank you, Vegeta.” Gokou said quietly as he fastened his earring to his right ear.

“Shut up, Kakorotto.” Vegeta growled and shoved his earring roughly onto his left ear. 

There was a moment of stillness; then Vegeta felt as if his world exploded.

## **

Chichi was infuriated.

First her husband had gone missing then, when he’d been _found,_ her _son_ had gone missing. Then when _he_ was found, or rather, came home, he had run off again, ignoring her as if she _wasn’t_ the one who had raised him from a babe, feed him, clothed him and taught him all his life. And if that wasn’t enough, straight after he’d left, Yamucha had grabbed her and, muttering something about holding her for ransom, he, Krillin and Deejay, who she’d thought was her _friend,_ had dragged her off to this kami-forsaken island in the middle of nowhere! Now she was tied up securely, with Deejay watching over her, not four feet from the obvious cause of all this hoop-la, the six other Dragonball's.

Wriggling slightly in her bindings, Chichi glared at Deejay and would have given the girl a good tongue lashing, _if_ the girl hadn’t have had the audacity to _gag_ her.

She was just beginning to make the girl feel good and uncomfortable with her glaring when there was the sound of a plane flying close by, then landing a few feet away. Chichi glared at the plane until the driver became apparent, then sighed with relief. Bulma had _obviously_ come to rescue her.

It was with a feeling of complete chagrin that Chichi watched Bulma get out of the plane and then, smugly, place the seventh Dragonball alongside the others. Wasn’t the woman supposed to be on _Gokou’s_ side? So she had turn-coated as well, just like Krillin and Yamucha. So much for depending on life-long friends.

Chichi’s glare became, if possible, ten times as deadly and, seemingly for the first time, Bulma noticed the other woman.

She smiled. “Chichi. I see you get to be here as Domino-sama’s final wish is granted. You certainly are lucky; with this wish, Domino-sama will become invincible and there will be nothing that Vegeta, or your precious Gokou can do.”

Chichi glared and sincerely wished that she _wasn’t_ gagged. If she could just get the piece of material out of her mouth she’d tell that double-crossing harpy _exactly_ where she could shove her damned ‘Domino-sama’ _and_ his wish. In fact, if she could just get enough leverage, maybe she could kick her. _That_ would certainly knock her down a peg, a good solid _kick_.

Chichi wiggled around a little, trying to loosen her bindings again, then suddenly stopped as Bulma dropped to the ground by her feet and lay there, unconscious.

“ _She_ certainly took her time.” Deejay muttered and looked down at Chichi for a moment, then smiled and quickly crouched down to untie Chichi’s bindings, babbling the entire time.

“I’m sorry Chichi, I had to go along with everything until this one,” a gesture towards Bulma, “showed up with the final Dragonball. I didn’t mean to upset you. I mean, I _was_ one of Domino’s people, but maybe he didn’t change me right cause after a while I didn’t really feel like following his orders any more and I know I wasn’t supposed to be able to think for myself cause he brainwashes people but I really got to like you, you’re really nice, and I didn’t want to betray you and so…well... I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

Chichi blinked at the other girl as she climbed to her feet, barely really understanding half of what she was talking about, then simply shrugged. “Can we get the Dragonball's to my husband? So he can get rid of that infernal Bond to Vegeta?”

Deejay nodded, “Gohan is on the other side of the island, near where everyone is fighting. We’ll get the Dragonball’s and go straight there.”

## **

“ _Who_ is that and _where_ is Gokou?!” Chichi demanded the instant she climbed out of Bulma’s plane, which she and Deejay had stolen to get across the island.

Gohan ignored the question and, along with Goten, caught the surprised women in a crushing hug.

“Yes, yes. I’m happy to see you two are all right as well, but where is Gokou and _who_ is that out there?” She pointed in the vague direction of the open field where a blonde man, who fit the descriptions she’d heard of Domino perfectly, and a strange man with slightly spiked black hair were facing each other.

Gohan fidgeted, “Uhmm… that is dad, out there… err… And Vegeta.” He was beginning to quake under his mothers incredulous glare, “They…used an item that fuses them together, into a single person, so they could become powerful enough to defeat Domino.”

Chichi’s eyes narrowed, “So he thinks that’ll save him from the talking too I’m going to give him when he gets home, does he? Well he won’t get out of it _that_ easily. Just as soon as he undoes this _fusion_ thing, he’s hearing from me!”

Gohan went silent, staring at the ground, then mumbled, “He can’t undo it, it’s permanent.”

“ _What?!_ ” Chichi screeched and Gohan winced. “Don’t be ridiculous, of course it’s not permanent. Now, we,” she gestured to where Deejay was hovering near the plane, “brought the Dragonball's so let’s get rid of this annoying Bond, right _now_!”

Gohan nodded rapidly and helped Deejay, only sparing her a brief, curious look, get the Dragonball's from out of the plane and set them on the ground, then, taking a deep breath he raised his arms. “Shenron, Eternal Dragon; I Summon you!”

## **

Domino was wary. “What kind of trick is this?” he demanded.

Vegetto smirked and spoke, his voice a curious merging of Vegeta and Gokou’s, as if the two men spoke as one, “No trick, Domino. This is your demise.”

Domino frowned then laughed and pushed his hair out of his eyes, “What? You expect to beat me simply by merging into a single person? True you no longer have to worry about the effects of my Bond, but that was simply for my own entertainment.” His eyes hardened, “ However, now I grow weary of this game. It is time to terminate you both.”  

Vegetto laughed, a short bark of delight that ended with him once again staring at his opponent seriously, “You can try.”

Domino growled and then his eyes flicked to the sky above as everything began to go black. Now he smiled.

“No matter what you try to do now, it won’t matter! My Servants have summoned the Eternal Dragon and my second wish can finally be realised. Once that wish is made, you will _never_ be able to defeat me.”

Vegetto smiled, “Then I’ll simply have to defeat you, before the wish is made.” And he leapt forward, Domino’s smiling face set in his sights.

## **

“ **Make your wish!** ” The Eternal Dragon demanded, staring down at Gohan.

Gohan nodded, “Eternal Dragon. We wish that the wish you last granted, to Bond one Son Gokou and one Prince Vegeta, be reversed!”

Everyone stood in silence as they waited for the Dragon to respond, then stood in shock when it did so.

“ **Your wish cannot be granted.** ”

“ _What?!_ ” Chichi demanded. “Why _not_!”

“ **The entities known as Son Gokou and Prince Vegeta no longer exist**.”

The silence that followed was deathly.

Then; “No…longer exist?” Chichi repeatedly, slowly.

“It…must be because of the fusion.” Gohan muttered and Chichi rounded on him.

“Then _undo_ it!”

“They _can’t_ undo it, it’s permanent!” Gohan protested.

“Then make it _un-_ permanent!” Chichi demanded and turned to the Eternal Dragon. “You can do _that_ , right?”

“ **That wish can be granted.** ”

“What?!” Gohan exclaimed. “No, you can’t…”

“Then _grant it!!_ ”

The Dragon’s eyes glowed red. “ **Your wish has been granted.** ”

Gohan stared in horror as the Dragon disappeared and the Dragonball's rose up into the air, then shot off into the distance.

“Oh…no.”

## **

Vegetto twisted in mid-air and, enjoying the freedom of movement he hadn’t felt in a long time, kicked Domino out of the air and followed him downwards, crushing him into the ground as they reached it and then flipped backwards through the rain of debris, then settled his feet on solid ground and waited for Domino to pull himself to his feet.

“Aren’t you getting up again, Domino?” The fused man taunted and smirked when the rubble moved slightly as Domino dragged himself from where it had almost trapped him.

Staggering upright, the blond man shook his clothes free of dust and small stones and lifted his bright purple eyes to glare fixedly at the other man. “You have not won yet. You…”

Vegetto growled and darted forwards, catching the man with a firm punch to the stomach, doubling him over.

“I have won.” Vegetto’s eyes narrowed, “You won’t survive this attack.”

Taking a few steps backwards, Vegetto lifted his arms in front of him, palms outward and began to gather his ‘Ki’.

“Say ‘Hello’ to Enma for me, _Domino_. _**Big Bang Kamehame~Ha!**_ ” [4] 

As he said the words, the ‘Ki’ in Vegetto’s hands surged outwards, gathering into a giant ball in front of his palms, lightning arc’s of energy pouring off it in waves, then he released it.

Three things happened at once.

Vegetto released his ‘Ki’, blasting Domino with his ultimate move.

Chichi made her wish and the sky lightened as the Eternal Dragon went back into his resting place and the Dragonball's re-dispersed themselves.

And Domino made a last-ditch effort to save himself. Channelling his remaining ‘Ki’ into a shield to protect himself.

Dust flew up into the air in great billowing clouds and the watchers, from where they were placed all around the island, were forced to cover their mouths and noses, and some of the closer ones even had to turn away and cover their eyes.

Slowly, the waves of dust began to settle and Gohan, ignoring the remaining dust all around him, raced out onto what was left of the field, searching for his father.

It seemed like a short eternity to him before, choking, hacking and attempting not to breathe, he spotted what looked like two forms through the dust-clouds. Racing towards them, Gohan nearly lost his feet twice, slipping and sliding on loose rubble before he finally broke through to the centre of the explosion, where the dust didn’t seem to want to fall.

“Dad?!” Gohan shouted the word as he moved into the circle of clear space and raced to the where the man was breathing hard, half leaning on Vegeta who was having a coughing-fit.

“Go…Gohan?” Gokou half wheezed and blinked up at his son.

“Where…where’s Domino?” Gohan asked and glanced around, still on guard in case the man were about to leap out of the settling dust.

“Got ‘im.” Vegeta managed through his coughing-fit and pushed himself into a more up-right position but still leaning hard against Gokou’s shoulder. “He tried to protect himself, but even with the fusion dissolving, we managed to put enough ‘Ki’ into the blast to kill him. You won’t even find his hair band.”

“How…how come we’re separate?” Gokou asked quietly, and Gohan looked embarrassed.

“Uhmm… That’s because Mum made a wish with the Dragon…”

“ _What?!_ ” The exclamation came from both men and Gohan stepped back slightly.

“Deejay helped mum get away from Domino and brought the Dragonball's with her. We tried to undo the Bond, but we couldn’t because you’d fused…and so mum undid the fusion. Is…is the Bond still… there?”

Vegeta let out a humourless laugh and Gokou nodded slightly, “It’s…shortened slightly, though.”

Gohan’s eyes went wide. “It…it what?”

Vegeta laughed again and looked up at Gohan, his expression set in a humourless half-smile, “There _is_ no space anymore. You think we’re glued to each other like this because we want to be?”

“No… no space?”

“None.” Gokou confirmed, “We’ll have to wait again…for the Dragon. I guess.”

“What…about the fusion. Can’t you use the earrings again?”

“They were destroyed,” Gokou explained, “when the fusion dissolved.”

“Oh…no.” 

“‘Oh, no’ indeed…” Vegeta said quietly, bitterly and ignored where Gokou gripped his wrist reassuringly.

“Gokou!” The three looked up, surprised to see the dust had finally managed to settle and that Chichi was marching resolutely towards them.

Vegeta groaned, his hand lifting to rub at his forehead. “Great, just what I don’t need right now.”

“Vegeta…” Gokou protested and Vegeta turned away slightly.

“She’s your _wife_ , deal with her and keep her quiet.”

Gokou flinched, as if the other man had thrown a particularly painful insult at him, then turned his gaze towards the woman who was baring down on them.

“Chichi…”

The man was cut off immediately, “Gokou! Do you _know_ what I’ve been through because of this entire _Bond_ thing!? First you go missing, _Goten_ goes missing and Gohan is dragged away, then I’m kidnapped by _your_ delinquent friends and held _hostage_ so that some _madman_ can try and get the Dragonball's to take over the world. Then I find out that you’re stuck to _him_ ,” she gestured dismissively at Vegeta, “through the Bond because you were irresponsible enough to start playing around with strange magical items and we couldn’t un-wish it. You’re just lucky I was around, or you’d be fused to _that man_ forever!”

Gokou’s expression had turned to a frown as the woman ranted, and by the end of it he was almost scowling. “Chichi.” He said calmly when the woman paused for breath. “Because you used that wish to dissolve our fusion, we almost couldn’t beat Domino, and we’re under the influence of the Bond again, except now there isn’t the luxury of having 10-feet of distance between us. It’s all _gone_ now, Chichi. We _may as well_ be fused.”

“What?” Chichi demanded, “Shouldn’t the Bond have disappeared when Domino died?!” 

“A wish isn’t dependant on the one who wished it, Chichi. You know that. I think… _We_ think the fusion ate up our space. We have to be touching at all times now, Chichi.”

“You mean I have to keep allowing _that man_ to live in _my house_?!” Chichi almost screamed and glared at Vegeta’s turned, apparently oblivious back.

Gokou stiffened and his eyes narrowed, “Of course not, Chichi. We’ll go somewhere else, away from you and your precious house. It’ll be better that way, anyway.”

“Better? What do you _mean_ ‘better’ ?”

“He _means_ ,” Vegeta finally turned around and glared at the woman, “away from your endless hours of harpy screeching.”

“Vegeta, don’t.” Gokou lifted a hand to Vegeta’s shoulder and then stood up, forcing Vegeta to stand with him.

“This isn’t the time for this.” He looked at Deejay for a moment, “could you take Chichi and the kids home, please. And Gohan, could you go look for Bulma. I think Domino’s influence will be wearing off of people now he’s gone.”

Chichi scowled, mainly at Vegeta, but allowed Deejay to pull her away, back to where Bulma’s stolen plane waited, Goten and Trunks hesitantly following behind them, and Gohan left in search of Bulma, and anyone else he knew.

For a moment, Gokou and Vegeta stood in silence, listening to the sounds of the Island slowly coming back to life with bird and ocean sounds. In the distance the sound of a plane taking off signalled that Chichi and the kids were on their way home.

“And what are we supposed to do _now_?” Vegeta asked finally, breaking the silence. 

“What _are_ we supposed to do? We live for another year, as best we can, and hope that Shenron can remove the Bond when the time comes.”

“And what if he _can’t_?” Vegeta demanded and glared up at the other man, his eyes narrowed as he examined Gokou’s every slight movement.

Gokou closed his eyes for a moment in thought and then opened them to look at Vegeta and grinned, putting his hand behind his head, “Then I guess we’re stuck like this forever.”

A knot of tension that had been curled up in the base of Vegeta’s stomach from the moment that the fusion had dissolved suddenly decided to release and the Saiyan prince almost smiled, catching it at the last minute he turned it into an almost affectionate smirk.

“Idiot.” He muttered and rested the hand, from the arm that the other man wasn’t clutching tightly by the wrist, on his hip. “So, we’re essentially stuck like this forever.” He murmured half to himself. Maybe the idea wasn’t half as bad as he’d imagined it was. Being fused with Kakorotto, even if it had been for barely half an hour, Vegeta had learnt, beyond a shadow of a doubt how the other man felt about him.   And maybe, just _maybe_ he felt it back. That wasn’t to say he’d say anything of course, or even act differently. No…because Kakorotto, the insufferable idiot, had duties. Family, friends; none of which would ever accept Vegeta any more than they already did, which was to say; they tolerated him because Kakorotto said so.

And then he felt it. Vegeta had almost forgotten, in all the rapid events that had been happening lately, that because of the Bond, Kakorotto could project his thoughts and share them with the other man; and he was doing so now. He was using the ability to do his talking for him. Vegeta felt friendship, protectiveness, possessiveness and …the other he was hesitant to even think. Had the other man taken leave of his senses? Had he forgotten about his family and friends, they would never accept the emotion that Kakorotto was directing at Vegeta at that moment.

And what did he think Vegeta’s reaction would be; to welcome him with open arms? He was still a prince and Kakorotto was still a third Class moron. He couldn’t expect Vegeta too… damnit, he could. Just as Vegeta had been fused to Kakorotto, Kakorotto had been fused to Vegeta. He would know all about the way Vegeta had been struggling inside for the last few weeks’…months… Kakorotto would know how the feelings of… feelings of… how those _feelings_ had been working their way into Vegeta’s blood, into his soul and forever corrupting him.

He could feel Kakorotto’s eyes on him, waiting patiently for an answer. No, not for _an_ answer - but for a _specific_ answer. Kakorotto, damn the man, knew exactly what Vegeta’s answer would be, and they both knew it. Kakorotto was in love with the smaller Saiyan and Vegeta felt the same thing back.

“Damnit!” Vegeta cursed, finally relenting and glaring up at the other man, “I’m not saying it!” 

And Kakorotto smiled. Smiled as if a thousand suns had risen at once, making Vegeta’s chest uncomfortably tight, and then grabbed him into a crushing hug.

“Alright. Fine!” Vegeta growled and tried to push the other man away, his eyes darting around for prying eyes, even though he couldn’t sense anybody nearby, “You can let go n…”

Vegeta trailed off suddenly as he felt something deep in his chest lurch slightly, then simply dissipate, as if it had never been there. It took him an instant to figure out what it was, but he suddenly realised he could no longer feel the presence that said ‘Kakorotto’ in the back of his brain.

A quick look up at the other man revealed that he had felt it too, and was equally missing a familiar sense in the back of his mind. Vegeta blinked then suddenly shoved the other man from him, tensing as their skin separated from one another expecting to be assaulted by pain…

And felt nothing.

“Kakorotto…” Vegeta’s startled eyes darted up to meet the other mans, “Does…does it _hurt_?”

Kakorotto shook his head and Vegeta took an experimental step backwards, waiting.

The other man shook his head again and Vegeta paused then held up a hand, “Five steps back, Kakorotto. Take them.”

The other man nodded and, moving together, they both took five steps backwards, each step expecting the pain to come back to assault at least one of them. It never came.

“The…Bond. It’s gone?” Vegeta couldn’t help but ask the question hesitantly, being bound with an invisible chain for over three months almost making him forget what it had been like without it.

With an unreadable expression on his face, Kakorotto walked back towards him and nodded slowly, “I…think it is gone.” He said quietly, his eyes examining the first genuine smile he’d ever seen on the other mans face.

Vegeta didn’t even notice the intense look, his mind running over the moment the Bond released over and over, looking for the clues that would tell him _why_ of all the times it could have disappeared, it had done so now.

He reluctantly realised that it didn’t take a genius to figure out _what_ had caused the Bond to dissipate, but it did take him a few moments longer to figure out _why_.

“Hatred.” Vegeta muttered the word then looked up at the other man and met his blank look. “Domino delighted in watching the Bond pull us closer and watching us struggle more frantically to get free each month. The more we hated the Bond, and the more I hated you, the stronger the Bond would become.”

For once the other man seemed to grasp the concept quickly, “But…because we just did the opposite, it dissolved instead of growing stronger. He set a loophole he thought we’d never figure out for his own amusement.”

“It was a good notion.” Vegeta mused, “It kept us occupied in more ways than one and by creating a weakness he could control he prevented there from being a weakness he _couldn’t_ control.”

Gokou grinned, “But he didn’t count on us fa…not hating each other.” At a glare from Vegeta, the taller man neatly sidestepped what he was about to say, his grin only getting wider, then it faltered slightly. “You still…don’t hate me…right? Even though the Bond is gone?”

Vegeta tensed slightly and he realised how easy it would be right now to slip out of it, to say it was all because of the Bond and to leave, going back to his impersonal shell and being the silent Saiyan Prince; like he should be. Then he lifted his eyes and saw the _look_ on the other man's face. The part of him that reminded himself a hundred times a day that he was a Saiyan Elite screamed at him to take that easy way out, to sneer and then walk away. But another part of him, the part that had come to the surface with his close association with the other Saiyan, that he had moments before given in too and accepted, it pointed to the hopeful eyes that were barely holding back their fear of rejection, the slightly desperate expression that was trying to stay neutral; and he realised he couldn’t do it. Couldn’t walk away, as if he hadn’t accepted what he felt. It was simply to late. Perhaps it would have happened eventually anyway, without Domino to push it along. And perhaps it might hurt some people, but that hurt wouldn’t last for long, and in the end, two people who hadn’t even realised how lonely they were, would be very happy.

“I thought I said I wasn’t going to say it. Idiot.” Vegeta turned away slightly at the last word, which came out slightly more affectionately then he had intended, but he still found himself engulfed in another crushing embrace. This time he simply sighed and leaned back into it, letting his eyes close slightly. 

Yes, it wouldn’t be easy at first, but he supposed… he could get used to this.


End file.
